Dr. Mircea, Barefoot Doctor Part III

In the spring of 1964 Dr. Mircea received the much sought-after invitation for a two-year post graduate ear nose and throat (ENT) fellowship in Warsaw, Poland. The nasty treatment at the Bucharest airport by armed guards, including confiscation of college photos as “security threat” because “the enemy of the communist regime must not know what the entrance to the university looks like,” did not dampen his spirit and elation to finally leave the oppression of communism behind. The two-year surgical training included abdominal surgery and ENT, followed by three years of brief solo practice, government work, and part-time ENT work at the famous Alfa Clinic on the elegant Nowy Swiat Street in Warsaw. In the five years Dr. Mircea spent in the Polish healthcare system (1964-1969), he “never met a single male nurse” because of WWII’s massive casualties and male immigration to the west.