Q & A with Dr. Stacia Dearmin (includes special offer)
Last month, I profiled Dr. Stacia Dearmin in my newsletter. Today on the blog, I’m chatting with Dr. Dearmin about her journey in medicine and learning more about her newly-launched course, Deposition Magic, the physician-defendant's key to success at deposition.
Tell me about where you grew up and what your family life was like.
I grew up near the Indian River along the east coast of Florida, first in a little beach town, then ten miles inland across the road from a dairy farm. I am the first of three siblings. My dad served in the Air Force in his early twenties then became a successful small business owner, and Mom chose to be a full-time parent and homemaker. They gave us lots of time outdoors, love, laughter, and the expectation that we would pursue education and be of service.
What led you to medicine?
As a child, I wanted to become a lifeguard, pulling drowning children from the pool. Then, in 7th grade, I developed a fascination with childbirth and planned to be an OB/Gyn. Even so, I took a while to find my way into medicine. As a first-generation college student, I found myself fascinated by every area of study. I pursued a bachelor’s degree heavy in the humanities and social sciences and a graduate degree in religion and ethics. In my grad school years I rediscovered medicine, but realized that my early interest in birth was really about the babies. I then entered medical school knowing I would land in pediatrics. For the last 15 years or so, I’ve spent time pulling drowning children out of the pool, so to speak, in the context of a pediatric emergency department.
Tell me about a major turning point in your career and what led you to found Thrive?
In 2012, my world was rocked when I had the experience of discharging a young woman home only to later learn that she had arrested the next day. It’s hard to convey how deeply that experience affected me. Sensations of grief and shame hit me hard and I experienced deep doubts about my place in medicine.
A year later, her parents filed a malpractice lawsuit. Naturally, that only heightened my distress. Despite early words of support from colleagues and co-workers, I experienced immense isolation, unlike any before or since.
Almost four years after her death, we went to trial. By chance, right in the middle of my trial, I became aware of the epidemic of physician suicide. I was stunned to learn that the equivalent of an entire medical school dies at their own hands each year. Working in emergency medicine, I knew that the deaths of these physicians must represent the tip of an iceberg of many, many others who suffer. While I don’t know what all the factors are that contribute to that epidemic, I immediately felt certain that the painful experience I was having must be one. Before my verdict was in, I found myself deeply committed to creating resources to provide information and support to physicians around how we recover from adverse outcomes and malpractice litigation.
Tell me about your new course, Deposition Magic.
Deposition Magic is an online course designed to encourage, inform, and empower physicians facing their own deposition in malpractice litigation. Comprised largely of a series of brief videos, Deposition Magic teaches physician-defendants:
● What deposition is and how it functions
● The goals, objectives, and most common tactics of personal injury attorneys
● The role of their defense attorney at deposition, and
● Their role at deposition as a defendant, and the mindset, goals, and strategies they themselves can adopt to respond with the utmost integrity and effectiveness in their own defense at their deposition.
A small army of wonderful physicians who’ve survived malpractice litigation as well as some powerhouse defense attorneys helped shape and vetted the content. The course offers CME and is available on-demand, and the feedback has been amazing thus far.
What do you hope this course will offer physicians?
This course contains everything I wish I’d known before my own deposition. Malpractice litigation is very, very lonely for physicians. My hope is that it will alleviate some of that isolation and help physicians to trade confusion and fear for clarity and calm. I want to see them go in with integrity and come out with integrity, knowing that they are still one of us.
What has surprised you most about having a career in medicine?
How very hard it was for me when my patient had such a painful, unexpected outcome.
What do you wish people knew about the life of a physician?
How very much we actually care. When I tell my story to non-physicians, even others in healthcare are surprised by how deeply affected physicians can be by events like those which I experienced.
What are you most proud of accomplishing?
Honestly, I’m most proud of coming through that dark night of the soul and finding a way to wring beauty out of all the ugliness. I now know that psychologists call this phenomenon “post-traumatic growth,” and while it doesn’t come easy, it is powerful and worth the effort.
Do you have a personal philosophy? Please share it!
I have many, but one which saw me through the time I’ve described came to me from a much older friend of mine. This man was in his seventies when we met and his nineties at the time of my trial. He was quite a colorful character and went around distributing business cards which read, “If you feel, you heal.” That became my mantra through those years and has been a true support to me. “If you feel, you heal.”
Tell me about your vision for the future of Thrive.
I dream of creating an entire array of resources -- written, video, and in-person -- to educate and support physicians and other healers around the experiences of adverse outcomes and malpractice litigation. I anticipate that “Deposition Magic” will be the first in a small series of interlocking courses, some of which may involve direct interaction, and I’m sure I’ll continue to blog and provide stress management coaching.
As Nature was enormously healing for me, I am also beginning to plan retreats that will provide a place for physicians recovering from these types of events to connect with one another in a natural setting to heal body, mind, and spirit. Really, the options are endless, limited only by our willingness to envision new ways to be together throughout our lives in medicine. My hope is that the next generation will not have to be so lonely in the midst of an experience that is so hard for many of us today.