Carl Allamby became an expert diagnostician after spending his childhood ducking his head under the hoods of Chevys and Fords with the older guys in his East Cleveland neighborhood. If a car whined and growled while turning, or if it squeaked on startup, he could run through a checklist in his head, zero in on the problem, and fix it.
Today, after a career overhaul, he does the same thing with people as an emergency medicine resident, having graduated from medical school this year at age 47.
The car mechanic is now a people mechanic at Cleveland Clinic Akron General hospital, where he started as a resident this month. He’s done more than rebuild his own career: He has narrowed, by one, the huge gap in black doctors in this country, particularly black male doctors.
To go from Carl the mechanic to Dr. Allamby, he had to engineer a 180-degree turn without ever hitting the brakes.
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