(Chicago hospital ER scene)

Millar: A gunshot victim is rushed into the emergency room of a city hospital.

It’s a scene repeated across America -- young doctors pushed to their limits. They lose this patient -- but another victim’s already on his way.The hours are long and the pressure is intense -- and it’s turning doctors into machines -- their human side switched off.

(Dr Allan Hamilton walking through clinic)

Dr Allan Hamilton knows that feeling.

Hamilton: I think I was just as guilty as anybody else.

Millar: A renowned neurosurgeon, Dr Hamilton now heads the department of surgery at the University of Arizona.

Hamilton: How did we start off with people who were so willing and so caring and end up with people who just seem so hassled and stressed and cynical and pessimistic?

(Hamilton with Anne. Student looks on)

Hamilton: What I’d like you to do for me, is I’d like you to touch your finger to your lips.

Millar: As well as lecturing, Dr Hamilton also sees patients, and often takes his students with him.

Hamilton: You notice one of the things that characteristic …
(Anne, hand shaking)

Millar: Anne Vanauken is suffering from extreme tremors.

Hamilton: I want you to hold your elbow out for me, and then I want you to tap with this hand on your knee.

Millar: She shakes so badly she’s contemplating brain surgery to try to fix it.

Anne: I would like that very much. I think I want to have it.

Hamilton: I think you’re a good candidate. I think you’ll have a good result. Very, very likely you’ll have a good result.

Millar: This isn’t an easy decision, but Dr Hamilton makes her feel comfortable.

(Dr Hamilton hugging Anne)

It’s no surprise – Anne has heard of his reputation.

Millar: Around these parts, Dr Hamilton is the horse whisperer.

(Hamilton with horse)

The whisperer uses few spoken words. Instead, his touch, his stare, his body – yields a response.

Hamilton: We all have a great deal of respect for the horse but here we are taking care of human beings and we’re just rushing in and out of their rooms, coming in uninvited, talking amongst ourselves and we just started saying, you know, why would we behave one way with a horse and another way with a patient.

Millar: He healed abused horses by being patient and gentle, and wondered if medical students could win the trust of their patients the same way.

(Hamilton with students)

Hamilton: About six months til we could actually – that he was willing to let us lead him in and out of the stall.

Hamilton: Pick up two of the geldings. I don’t care which two. And we’ll use Hannah, because I think there’s six of you tonight. Okay?

Student: They’re out there?

Hamilton: They’re out there. They’re the big things with the four legs.

(Sydney with horse)

Sydney: You know that this horse is really – have you noticed him, have you worked with him before? And you’ll just be with him and he’ll lay down.

Millar: Sydney Lazarus is like many of the students who take this rather unconventional class – intimidated and a little surprised she’s even here.

Sydney: They’re extremely large, they’re just overwhelming. I’m kind of tiny and they just seem so huge.

Hamilton: Okay, as soon as he takes a step out… Yep. Perfect.

Millar: But she’s learning something she won’t find in the textbooks.

Sydney: I’ve learned a lot about how my skills are in dealing with patients as far as my own determination. How I hold and carry myself and see how they respond to that.

Hamilton: I want for him to yield it. There. There we go. See how he calms down right there. And he softens. His neck comes down. So I'm going to say to him, that’s exactly what I wanted.

Millar: Dr Hamilton tells them how a simple turn of the head or a gentle word of encouragement can turn student and horse into partners.

Hamilton: First your feet belong to the horse. Let him choose, let him choose. Good, Sydney. There. Okay. What’s happened?

Sydney: He doesn’t want to go any more.

Hamilton: So we’re going to ask him. We’re going to say, I can support you. We’re going to let him choose it. We’re going to say, come on. You can choose it. Can I hold him back? I can’t hold a thousand pound horse back. What I'm going to say is I can support him with my energy right there. Okay?

Hamilton: It’s not abstract, it’s not symbolic, it’s not a cognitive thing, it’s a real visceral body experience and then you go, oh now I’ve got it, that’s what that feels like.

Millar: It’s the horse that lends itself so perfectly to this experiment.

Hamilton: You have this animal that’s exquisitely tuned to nuances of body language and body posture and the amount of effort or force that you’re projecting out of yourself. So that’s how they live every day and of course we don’t.

(Hamilton with students in darkened room watching large screen video of themselves dealing with patients)

Hamilton: There’s the glance, she’s given you the entrée…

Millar: For students it’s a challenge translating what they’ve learnt on the ranch to their patients.

Hamilton: Okay, now I can open up that wedge and bring her into it.

Millar: They watch the results on video.

Hamilton: And it’s like a horse -- you’ve got them in your tractor beams now. That’s very nice Sydney.

(Hamilton on ranch)

Hamilton: She’s very easy to sustain, but she’s also easy to distract. So I want you to feel confident and roll through it.

(Students in lecture)

Millar: These students don’t pay for this horse class -- there are no marks -- it doesn’t count towards their degree. But when they’re back in their more traditional surroundings…

Millar: … they’re convinced it will pay off. It has to. This year, for the first time in four decades, medical students will face a nationwide test of their patient communication skills before being able to practice as doctors.
Sydney: What attaches to D then…

(Hamilton and Millar walking with horse)

Hamilton: Okay, relax. It’s as if you’ve got a bubble around you and he’s got a bubble around him.

Millar: The next day, I’m back at the ranch. Dr Hamilton’s agreed to give me a private lesson -- to prove this concept’s not as vague as it looks.

Hamilton: People say how do you do that? Well you just practice it until you can feel it, there’s nothing magical about it.

Millar: The energy --it seems -- is within me.

Millar: Do you think of yourself as a horse whisperer?

Hamilton: It’s not really horse whispering, it’s kind of horse talking.

(Sydney studying)

Millar: Sydney knows she has years of study ahead to enter a profession where the learning never ends.

But she considers herself one of the lucky ones to have spent time talking to the horses.

Sydney: Well, I think it’s imperative, because if you don’t believe, or feel comfortable with your provider, how will you feel about your course of therapy or your health care if you’re not communicating well with that person in many regards, how do you know that you’re being heard?

(Anne arranges flowers, hands shaking)

Millar: And with her brain surgery not far away, Anne is glad is Dr Hamilton is trying to change the status quo.

Anne: He’s loving and he’s gentle. He shakes your hand and gives you a hug and does all those things that make you feel comfortable.

(Hamilton with horse)

Millar: And Allan Hamilton dreams of a time when it’s not just students, but doctors who are taking his class…and putting the caring -- not just the curing -- back into medicine.


Credits:

Reporter: Lisa Millar
Camera: David Martin
Sound: Woody Landay
Editor: Woody Landay
Research: Renata Gombac