Dr. Lawrence Rudski says his son, who has a visual impairment, has “overcome every single obstacle.”
When Dr. Lawrence Rudski’s son was four months old, a physician delivered some unexpected news. Because of the boy’s visual impairment, he would never attend a regular school, ride a bicycle or experience some of the milestones that other children enjoy.
Dr. Rudski and his wife, Marcy Cohen, heard the outlook but saw a different future: They would raise their son to focus on his strengths and not his limitations, and to believe that nothing was impossible. Today, their son has fulfilled that promise.
That four-month-old baby, Jack, has become a resident in Internal Medicine at the Jewish General Hospital, following in his father’s footsteps to pursue a career in medicine. He reached that goal by taking inspiration from his father’s example. And he has become a source of inspiration to his father in return.
“Jack has been faced with challenge after challenge,” says Dr. Rudski, who is JGH Chief of Cardiology, Director of the Azrieli Heart Centre and Medical Director of Virtual Care.
“He chose a profession that people would think is incompatible with his condition. But he has overcome every single obstacle.”
Dr. Lawrence Rudski
Dr. Jack Rudski, 29, was born with oculocutaneous albinism, a condition that reduces pigmentation of skin, hair and eyes and affects visual acuity. He says he can see shapes well “but the details get lost,” and with vision of 20/200, he is considered legally blind.
When doing clinical work with patients, he uses a telescope fitted to a pair of glasses, enabling him to work hands-free, and he relies on an electronic magnifier for clerical work. He hopes to test a one-of-a-kind set of augmented reality glasses this summer.
“Medically, I’ve managed to find technical devices and strategies to find a way to do everything,” he says, including intricate procedures such as intubating patients or inserting a central line into the vein in a patient’s neck.
The professionals at the MAB, a site within the Lethbridge-Layton-Mackay Rehabilitation Centre of CIUSSS West-Central Montreal, provided crucial guidance and technical support through the years. “They allowed me to do everything that any other physician can do.”
He admits he wasn’t always keen to be a doctor. As a youngster, he was “afraid of seeing people sick.” But he began to be impressed by his father’s dedication to his patients and the way he would rush from home to be at their bedside. So, after getting an undergraduate degree in biochemistry at McGill University, he decided to apply to the university’s medical school.
“My father influenced me in the best way: Not by saying, ‘You should become a doctor,’ but by making it so appealing.”
Dr. Jack Rudski
The younger Dr. Rudski was even able to tag along and observe his father on service while on rotation.
“Just to see how he interacted with a team and practised medicine really shaped my style later on. He made everyone feel heard, and even tried to get a joke in,” he says. “To me, this exemplified how to be a doctor. He’s my greatest mentor.”
“Sometimes, when I’ve been faced with tough clinical decisions, I think: ‘What would my Dad do?”
Yet the younger Dr. Rudski faced barriers over the years that others did not, including the assumptions of those who saw his disability before his capabilities. A physician in medical school suggested he specialize in psychiatry, because it would mean fewer hands-on interventions with patients. On another occasion, while he was on rotation as a medical student, he was urged to let the patient guide him into the room.
“Instead of looking at his gifts and his brilliance and compassion, people would focus on his perceived weakness,” Dr. Lawrence Rudski says. This never stopped his son. “Jack is so tough and so smart, he could overcome all the obstacles.”
Now completing his third year of residency, with the intent of pursuing training in cardiology at McGill beginning in July, Dr. Jack Rudski has already forged a reputation of his own. When he first started his residency, doctors who met him inevitably asked if he was Dr. Lawrence Rudski’s son.
“Now,” his father says with pride, “they come to me and ask: ‘Are you Jack’s father?’”
“Other doctors tell me he is a better doctor than I am. They refer to Jack as the nicer and smarter version of me.”
Dr. Lawrence Rudski
In pursuing his path in medicine, the younger Dr. Rudski is also carrying on a family commitment to the JGH. He is named after Dr. Jack Siminovitch, his maternal great-grandfather, who began working as an internist in 1935, the year after the hospital’s founding, and remained on staff for 45 years.
This connection to the JGH and other CIUSSS institutions extends to the entire family. Marcy Cohen has volunteered at the Habilitas Foundation—the official foundation for the Lethbridge-Layton-Mackay Rehabilitation Centre—in gratitude for the dedication and support the staff provided her son over the years.
And Dr. Lawrence Rudski’s daughter, Pamela, 31, who lives with autism, is on a work program at the JGH in partnership with Miriam Home and Services, another member facility of the CIUSSS. She picks up recycling and laundry, and helps with cleaning, among other tasks.
“It gives her tremendous pride and purpose,” her father says. “She brings a smile to everyone’s face. It shows that the JGH welcomes everybody.”
Each in their own way, the children have demonstrated the power of parents’ belief in them and the lessons that come from defying expectations.
“My parents were my greatest source of support,” Dr. Jack Rudski says. “They always told me: ‘You will be able to find ways around this, and there’s nothing that’s impossible.’”