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Rosalind Franklin: DNA's unsung hero - Cláudio L. Guerra

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Five-year-old Andrew Bieniek "adores" the upbeat Dr. Ain, according to his mother, Marie. The little boy has traveled to Hopkins several times to be treated for complications of dwarfism; last fall Ain straightened Andrew's severely bowed legs.

"When I was growing up, I didn't have role models who were dwarfs," he says. "My mother and father were good role models, great role models. They were very wonderful, always encouraging. Being short could never be used as an excuse--if I came home and didn't make the basketball team or get an A. They always instilled in me I could do anything I wanted to."

As a child, Ain saw a fair share of doctors and made a trek every year to Johns Hopkins Hospital to be examined by medical geneticist Victor McKusick, who diagnosed Ain's condition. Ain did not require serious medical interventions, aside from having ear ventilation tubes implanted, a procedure prescribed for many achondroplasts. (Having a smaller throat and nasal passages appears to impede ventilation, which raises the risk of middle ear infections.) However, young Michael spent enough time in examining rooms to experience a callous side of doctoring. Some doctors, says Ain, "used to talk in the third person: 'Michael's drainage output this, this, and this.' They'd kind of talk about you."

In school, he experienced the teasing that most "little people" go through. But he has always been outgoing and made friends easily. He and eight childhood friends get together every year for a reunion.

After attending Andover Academy in Massachusetts, Ain went to Brown University, where he decided he wanted to become a doctor. "I thought medicine was a fascinating field, a chance to help people." Having been a patient himself, he felt, would also be an advantage. He was determined to have a better bedside manner than many of the doctors who treated him when he was a child.

At Brown, Ain built the solid academic and extracurricular record that medical schools seek in their applicants. He majored in math, earning a better-than-B average, did research in a physiology lab, and earned good MCAT scores. He also played second base on the varsity baseball team, co-directed the university's Big Brother program, and was an officer in his fraternity. Ain sent out 20 to 30 applications to medical schools all over the country including Hopkins. On the advice of a guidance counselor, he noted in the personal letter each school required that he was a dwarf. "Because I am," Ain says simply. "It shaped me."

At first he thought he had a good chance of getting into medical school. But then his optimism began to fade. During several of his admissions interviews, officials told him he'd have great physical difficulty performing the duties of a physician. When Ain pressed them to explain, they told him he would not be able to reach his patients' bedside. To Ain, the solution seemed obvious. He would use a footstool. Others worried that he wasn't strong enough. Ain, who had been lifting weights and working out regularly, fired back, "I'm stronger than anybody you're interviewing today." He suggested he could match any of them in the weight room. What about gaining the respect of his patients? asked some interviewers. Ain thought that was a lame excuse. His classmates at Andover had chosen him to receive the coveted "End of the Year Award," signifying their respect and admiration. He had proved his leadership skills time and again. "You don't have to be intimidating to be respected," Ain says.

But Ain's fears were confirmed. One by one, the thin envelopes bearing rejection notices arrived, until eventually Ain had received one from every medical school to which he had applied.

Ain was devastated. Although none of the letters mentioned his height, he had no doubt that some or all of the admissions offices believed a dwarf could not or should not become a physician.

"I was scared. I was angry. I was hurt. It was the only time I hit the wall," he says. "It was the only time I felt trapped."

The experience challenged his whole outlook. "I was being denied this for no good reason, for a reason I couldn't do anything about. It goes against everything I was taught. My parents told me I could do anything I wanted as long as I pushed myself. If this was going to happen, then during the first 23 years of my life, this lie was being made."

Ain decided to try again. He returned to Brown the year after he had graduated to try to improve his chances of getting into medical school. He took two advanced science courses, earning two A's with distinction. He continued his research and got his work published. He applied to about 20 medical schools, including some of the same ones he had applied to the first time, again frankly revealing that he was a dwarf.

Again the thin envelopes began arriving. But this time, one envelope was fatter than the others. It was an acceptance from Albany Medical College in upstate New York.

One of the Albany faculty members who interviewed Ain was B. Barry Greenhouse, then an associate professor of anesthesiology. Greenhouse and Ain hit it off. Greenhouse was a baseball fan and was impressed that when Ain played for Brown he had batted against Ron Darling, the Yale player who went on to become a famous Mets pitcher. Moreover, says Greenhouse, "I just felt he was a good student. He impressed me immensely with his intelligence. He was a compassionate, decent young man who would be a credit to the medical profession. If I were ill, I would like him to be my doctor."

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Five-year-old Andrew Bieniek "adores" the upbeat Dr. Ain, according to his mother, Marie. The little boy has traveled to Hopkins several times to be treated for complications of dwarfism; last fall Ain straightened Andrew's severely bowed legs. "When I was growing up, I didn't have role models who were dwarfs," he says.

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Dr. Ain is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He is one of a few dwarf doctors and, perhaps, the only orthopedic surgeon in the country that is a little person. He has never let his short stature stop him from accomplishing his dreams, although the world around him tried.

He applied to 20 to 30 medical schools, stating on each application that he was a little person and that "Because I am, it shaped me." Those interviewing him during the admissions process expressed their doubts, believing he would not be able to reach his patient's bedside or that he would not be strong enough or gain the respect of his patients and peers. Dr. Ain had a response to all their doubts yet the rejection letters piled up. In fact, he was rejected from every medical school he applied to.

Not one to give up, he went back to Brown University, his alma mater, to take additional advanced science courses (aced them), continued his research and was published. He then applied to another 20 medical schools, including a few that had rejected him before, and, after again receiving rejection after rejection, was accepted by Albany Medical College. At Albany he decided he wanted to become a pediatric neurosurgeon and, like before, was rejected by the 14 residency programs he applied to. He then applied to approximately 10 general surgery programs and, one by one, they turned him down. Their reason for rejection? None of the programs thought a little person could physically do the job or earn respect. Mind you, this was after he had proven himself in med school after facing similar reasons for rejection.

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Who I'm Looking Up To: Dr. Michael Ain - Jillian Ilana

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October is dwarfism awareness month. In years past I had posted every day on my Instagram account, speaking a simple truth about being a little person in an average sized world. Now, with this blog as my platform, I do that on a weekly basis (or at least try to).

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Johns Hopkins Orthopaedic Surgery
December 10, 2014

At the time, Chael's mother was seeking an orthopaedic surgeon with experience treating patients with achondroplasia, like Chael, for whom spinal stenosis is a common complication. At a conference held by Little People of America, she met Johns Hopkins orthopaedic surgeon Michael Ain.

Ain started treating patients at Johns Hopkins in 1995 and gained insight working with Johns Hopkins pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson. During this time, Ain noticed how pediatric patients with achondroplasia would develop kyphosis within a year or two of having a laminectomy to remove the bone squeezing the spinal canal. "I realized that these children needed a different operation than adults with the same symptoms," he says. "They needed a spinal fusion to correct the kyphosis and keep it from getting worse."

In a study published in 2006, Ain showed that adults with achondroplasia can have successful multiple-level laminectomies to correct stenosis without requiring a fusion but that the same procedure in children results in kyphosis. "For pediatric patients, we do a fusion at the same time and we use pedicle screws and rods," he says. "Unlike wires and hooks, screws take up less space and the results are exponentially better from a neurofunction and a fusion point of view."

After examining Chael, Ain recommended a laminectomy and fusion. The procedures were completed in May 2013. Now Chael can walk, run and jump around his family's farm. Despite Chael's success, Ain cautions, "That's not to say that in five or even 50 years he's not going to get stenotic symptoms at a higher level in his spine. The surgery fixes it, sometimes permanently, but you can still develop a problem elsewhere."

Ain and neurosurgeon Daniele Rigamonti published a study in 2000 that showed even though stenosis can recur in patients many years after a surgical decompression, repeating the operation can lessen patients' pain and neurological symptoms.

Whether patients are 6 or 60, Ain's operations typically do the trick. Outcomes show that more than 95 percent of his pediatric patients who had primary spinal surgery do well, and more than 90 percent of those who had spinal revision surgery do well. As for adults, more than 92 percent do well after a primary operation and more than 84 percent do well after a revision.

"Even if patients have had previous surgery and had poor outcomes, it doesn't mean that another operation can't be successful," says Ain. "It's a more challenging surgery, but it can still have a successful outcome."

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Answers for Achondroplasia - Johns Hopkins Medicine

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Johns Hopkins Orthopaedic Surgery December 10, 2014

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The Untold Truth Of George Washington Carver

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Dr. George Washington Carver - 1943

Research Scientist Extraordinaire, Inventor, Man of Faith, Educator and Humanitarian

As a botany and agriculture teacher to the children of ex-slaves, Dr. George Washington Carver wanted to improve the lot of "the man farthest down," the poor, one-horse farmer at the mercy of the market and chained to land exhausted by cotton.

Unlike other agricultural researchers of his time, Dr. Carver saw the need to devise practical farming methods for this kind of farmer. He wanted to coax them away from cotton to such soil-enhancing, protein-rich crops as soybeans and peanuts and to teach them self-sufficiency and conservation.

Dr. Carver achieved this through an innovative series of free, simply-written brochures that included information on crops, cultivation techniques, and recipes for nutritious meals. He also urged the farmers to submit samples of their soil and water for analysis and taught them livestock care and food preservation techniques.

In 1906, he designed the Jessup Wagon, a demonstration laboratory on wheels, which he believed to be his most significant contribution toward educating farmers.

Dr. Carver's practical and benevolent approach to science was based on a profound religious faith to which he attributed all his accomplishments. He always believed that faith and inquiry were not only compatible paths to knowledge, but that their interaction was essential if truth in all its manifold complexity was to be approximated.

Always modest about his success, he saw himself as a vehicle through which nature, God and the natural bounty of the land could be better understood and appreciated for the good of all people.

Dr. Carver took a holistic approach to knowledge, which embraced faith and inquiry in a unified quest for truth. Carver also believed that commitment to a Larger Reality is necessary if science and technology are to serve human needs rather than the egos of the powerful. His belief in service was a direct outgrowth and expression of his wedding of inquiry and commitment. One of his favorite sayings was:
"It is not the style of clothes one wears, neither the kind of automobile one drives, nor the amount of money one has in the bank, that counts. These mean nothing. It is simply service that measures success."
Our nation currently agonizes over questions about ethics and society in the wake of egregious moral abuses in our public and private lives. The life of Carver reminds us that such abuses will continue until we reunite ethical and technical reasoning in the context of a profound faith that holds all inquiry and action accountable.

Accomplishing this in the midst of so much diversity will not be easy. We can, however, approximate it if we act on the belief in a common humanity, which binds us together despite our differences of race, nationality and culture, and a common destiny that can be secured only if science and technology seek to serve broad and deep societal needs.

At Tuskegee University, we continue to commit ourselves to inquiry and commitment, faith and knowledge, truth and service, scientific and technical competence, and ethical maturity.

Such is the imprint of Dr. George Washington Carver upon us.

Carver Chronology

On Jan. 5, 1943, Dr. George Washington Carver died. He left behind a legacy as not only one of America's greatest inventors, but also as a pioneering agriculturalist, award-winning artist and humble humanitarian. READ MORE

Carver Peanut Products

Dr. George Washington Carver's work resulted in the creation of more than 300 products from peanuts, contributing greatly to the economic improvement of the rural South. See a list of some of his peanut products. READ MORE

Carver Sweet Potato Products

A genius in botany and agricultural experimentation, Dr. George Washington Carver discovered more than 100 uses for the sweet potato and a variety of Southern plants. See a list of some of his sweet potato products. READ MORE

Carver Bulletins

An advocate for crop rotation, Dr. George Washington Carver helped educate farmers in the rural South through his bulletins that contained invaluable advice about improving soils using fixed nitrogen crops and growing low input crops. READ MORE

Carver's Favorite Poem, "Equipment"

"EQUIPMENT" by Edgar A. Guest is a poem recited by Dr. George Washington Carver during his commencement address at Selma University in Selma, Alabama, on May 27, 1942, according to the George Washington Carver National Monument, Diamond, Missouri. READ MORE

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Research Scientist Extraordinaire, Inventor, Man of Faith, Educator and Humanitarian As a botany and agriculture teacher to the children of ex-slaves, Dr. George Washington Carver wanted to improve the lot of "the man farthest down," the poor, one-horse farmer at the mercy of the market and chained to land exhausted by cotton.

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Follow this link to the 2-minute video recap of GWC

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George Washington Carver: "It's Service That Measures Success" | PBS LearningMedia

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George Washington Carver rose to become one of the best-known and widely respected Black Americans in the world. He devoted his life to helping Black farmers suffering the oppression of racism, poverty and ignorance. In this short video, experts and scholars discuss his impact and inspiration.