“Weighing In” On My First Clinical Rotation As A “Booth Doctor”

June 2025 | Vol. 69, No. 2
Written by Ted Eisenberg, DO – PCOM ‘76

When I arrived at the clinic in North Philadelphia, I knew virtually nothing about patient management – other than that I had to do a history and physical to get started.

I went to weigh my first patient and asked her to step on the non-digital scale. It wouldn’t register because she was well over 300 pounds. So, I grabbed a second scale, had her place one foot on each, and I tried to simultaneously calibrate each one. It didn’t work. I dug deeper into her 3-inch chart and discovered that someone had figured out that if you put a large clamp on the end of the scale part that moves up and down, and you weigh yourself before and after placing the clamp, you’d know how many pounds it would knock off – about 80 pounds in my case. 

After my second patient walked in and sat down, I asked, “How much do you weigh?”  He told me, and I followed up with “Is that with or without your shoes?” He then knocked on one of his legs. It was wooden. Then he knocked on the other! Both were a result of a below-knee amputation from diabetic gangrene. My first day in the clinics was a learning experience – a very embarrassing one.