“Progress is often made by those who investigate the boundaries of several areas, instead of having laser-like focus on a single discipline. That’s where many of the answers in science reside.”
— Robert Peter Gale, MD, PhD
Name: Robert Peter Gale, MD, PhD
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Specialty: Internal Medicine, Hematology and Oncology. International Nuclear Accident Expert.
All right welcome back for part II of the American Doctor at Chernobyl with Dr. Robert Gale. As you heard last time, Dr. Gale (a bone marrow transplant specialist from UCLA) rose to international prominence after being the first American physician invited by the Soviet Union to treat patients suffering acute radiation trauma, only days after the horrific incident at Chernobyl.
Our journey continues as Dr. Gale is flown in by helicopter to personally survey the Chernobyl nuclear power-plant. This only weeks after the meltdown of reactor number four. We’ll see what it was like walking through the eerily empty streets of Pripyat. This was literally one of the most dangerous and heavily restricted areas on the planet. For an outsider, especially an American, to be personally inspecting this area, actually treating patients, all during the height of the cold war, was simply unthinkable… until it actually happened.
For those of you who enjoyed the recent hit HBO series on Chernobyl, we’ll spend a little more time there. Then we’ll move on to subsequent nuclear incidents such as Tokiamura and Fukushima, and Dr. Gale’s first hand experience with those. We’ll discuss his lessons learned and his thoughts on the future of nuclear energy. We’ll also see what he’s up to today.
It’s an incredible part II for this rare series. With that said, let’s get started.
Links and Resources:
Presentation at PLATO group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spPiT6RNUIk
Film credits: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0301907/
Acting Clip in Movie (21:59): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZFPio2PeQc
60 Minutes: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8110604/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_1
Dr. Robert Gale Website: http://robertpetergalemd.com/
Dr. Robert Gale CV: Dr. Robert Gale CV- PeerSpectrum Podcast
PeerSpectrum | Journeys in Medicine 