“Welcome to my house…Baby take control now…” I walked into my patient’s room to hear Flo Rida blasting through the television. Now, as an ICU physician, I’m not used to hearing music blasting at the level which it was. We like the place to be rather quiet so our patients can get as much rest as possible. However, in this particular case, I knew exactly what was going on.

A few weeks ago, Dr. Daniel wrote an extraordinary blog about his first encounter with a dying patient as an intern physician. Well, the blog you are reading, while about a dying man, is truly about living your life to the fullest. With the music level at high, I looked to the screen then to his wife who was in tears at the bed side. Her husband was as sick as I’d ever seen a person. Outside of a miracle (which I do believe in) there was no way he make it out alive. If you’ve seen movies with patients on maximum life support, they had nothing on this guy. He was going to die, and we all knew it.

With a tear running down her face, his wife said, “he loved this song”. I responded, “well then, crank it up.” We did just that as more family members came into the room. They began reminiscing and sharing stories that demonstrated just how full of life this wonderful man was. That day, we withdrew care on him and he died in his early 40s.

As an ICU doc, I’m no stranger to death, however, this one made me reflect on life more than others. Certainly his youth had something to do with that, but even more, it was the way his family described him. This patient was full of life and the loud rings of Flo Rida emanating from his room was fitting to his personality. He died with so many loved ones by his side demonstrating the impact he left on the world. It was clear that he lived with passion.

Day in and day out, I work to develop tomorrow leaders in medicine. Over the years I’ve noticed that the desire to become a superb doctor drains the life out of many premeds. They lose their passion! I’ve seen so many premeds turn into near zombies. Study, eat, sleep…study, eat, sleep. It’s not a fulfilling life. If I had to pick a theme song for these individuals, it’d be something sad..nothing like “Welcome to my House.”

So here’s my question to you; what is the soundtrack to your life? I pray none of us end up in that ICU bed like my patient, but if you did, what would your family say about you? What song would they play? Study hard and become a doctor, just make sure to live with passion along the way!

Are you a premed? Join Diverse Medicine now. It's free!