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UVA Med Student Saves Man’s Life During Training Exam

UVA Med Student Saves Man’s Life During Training Exam
1/14/2014
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Suada Kolovic

A University of Virginia medical student who thought he was taking part in a routine training exam is now being credited with potentially saving a man’s life!

According to the University of Virginia Health System, student Ryan Jones was participating in the standardized patient program where actors are assigned a specific condition so that medical students can attempt to diagnose them and found that his “patient” actually had real life-threatening symptoms. Pretend patient Jim Malloy was instructed to portray the symptoms of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), a condition common in men between the ages of 65 and 75 years old in which a section of the lower part of the aorta starts to bulge. Left untreated, the bursting of such an aneurysm can be fatal. During his practice exam, Jones noticed that Malloy actually had symptoms of AAA and the physician overseeing the training session told Malloy to see a cardiologist. After a few months, he did and the doctor found an AAA...just as Jones had predicted.

Malloy had stent surgery at the University of Virginia Medical Center last year and has since recovered. “Don’t ever think you can’t affect a life,” said his wife, Louise Malloy, in a press release this week. “My husband, Jim, is living proof that you can.” (For more on this story, click here.)

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