It turns out that a medical education may help you with more than a career in medicine — it may also help you survive a kidnapping. At least that’s what Steven Berk, MD, discovered when he was kidnapped from his Amarillo home at gunpoint on March 6, 2005.
It was a calm, peaceful Sunday morning, and Dr. Berk was working at his computer reviewing his son’s term paper, when he turned around and came face to face with the end of a shotgun. The intruder told Dr. Berk he would kill him if he didn’t do exactly what he said.
“The first moment was really terrifying. You have a shotgun to your head and you have someone who is seemingly scared and angry — someone you’ve never seen before.” The man holding the gun was a meth addict named Jack Lindsey Jordan who had recently been released from prison after serving an 11-year sentence. He had entered Berk’s home through an open garage door.
Jordan first asked Dr. Berk if he had a gun in the house — which he didn’t. Then he asked if there was anyone else in the house. Dr. Berk’s wife had already left for church, but his son was still downstairs waiting for a friend to pick him up.
“So he took me to the laundry room and we waited to see what my son would do. Fortunately, like you see on TV, my son came up the stairs and I stuck my head out of the laundry room. I said to him, ‘Well, I guess it’s time for you to go to church. I’ll see you later.’ And he said goodbye and walked out the front door. He didn’t know that there was a gun at my back and there was another person in the laundry room. That was a poignant moment: My son walking out of the house and I don’t know if that’s the last time I’m going to see him.”
How aequanimitas helped him survive
Keeping the gun to Dr. Berk’s back, the pair got into Jordan’s SUV and Jordan told Dr. Berk to drive to an ATM to take out $500. There was only one problem: Dr. Berk didn’t know the PIN because his wife did all of the family’s banking.
“He got furious and started saying he’d kidnapped the stupidest person in the world,” says Dr. Berk.
But it turns out Dr. Berk wasn’t stupid at all. In fact, during the four-hour ordeal, his education and quick thinking probably kept him alive.
“The first moment was really terrifying. You have a shotgun to your head and you have someone who is seemingly scared and angry...”
Aequanimitas is a Latin word meaning “imperturbability, coolness, presence of mind under all circumstances,” and a concept Dr. Berk learned throughout his medical training and medical practice. Sir William Osler, a 19th-century physician and the father of modern medicine, believed aequanimitas is one of the most important traits that physicians can possess.
While the kidnapper was trying to figure out how to get the money, Dr. Berk stayed calm and memorized the car’s vehicle identification number (VIN), which he could see reflected onto the windshield from the dashboard. Dr. Berk also used his physician-patient relationship skills to develop a connection with the kidnapper — hoping that would increase his odds of surviving. “He told me all of the mistakes he had made in his life, and how he was a meth addict, and he even told me about his medical problems. He told me about his back pain and I told him, ‘Well, you’re under a lot of tension. Back pain is a lot worse with tension, and you have a very stressful job being a kidnapper and all.’”
After four hours of driving around Amarillo, the duo ended up in Bushland. Jordan eventually let Dr. Berk go, telling him that if he called the police he would come back and kill him, his wife, and his son.
Dr. Berk flagged down a passing car, and the driver let him use his cell phone. Dr. Berk called his wife, and then the police. Jordan continued on a crime spree throughout New Mexico until he was caught a few days later. Police tracked down the car by using information from the VIN Dr. Berk had memorized.
Lessons for future Texas physicians
Shortly after the kidnapping, once his life had settled back to normal, Dr. Berk realized he had learned some important lessons from the kidnapping that he wanted to pass on to others — especially young medical students. Dr. Berk currently serves as Dean of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Medical School, and his passion is to prepare his students to become the best physicians they can be. Drawing on his memories of the experience, as well as documents from the trial and testimony from the kidnapper, he wrote a book, Anatomy of a Kidnapping: A Doctor’s Story, which was recently published by Texas Tech University Press.
Besides telling the chilling account of the day’s events, Anatomy of a Kidnapping: A Doctor’s Story includes stories from Dr. Berk’s experience as a physician, including his insights and recollections of being a student, a father, a husband, a son, a victim of a violent crime, and as a participant in the trial against his kidnapper. He uses these stories to show readers, especially medical students, how to make the most out of their mistakes, the significance of the physician-patient relationship, and what’s important in life.
One reviewer called Dr. Berk’s book “A book perfectly suited for a ‘required reading’ list for medical students and young doctors.”
To read the rest of Dr. Berk’s story, you can order his book on his website or Amazon.
The book was mentioned in People magazine, and has received favorable reviews on blogs and in various newspapers. “It’s been doing well by word-of-mouth, from one medical student to another. I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I’m not a professional writer, so it all worked out pretty well.”
Dr. Berk believes the most important lesson he learned from the kidnapping, and what he’d like to instill in his students, is “to appreciate every moment of life. If there are things you want to do, or people you want to contact, or places you want to go, don’t wait for the next day — because no one knows the future, and no one is guaranteed a long life.”
Programs help prepare Texas Tech students for the future
Dr. Berk’s passion is to help Texas Tech medical students prepare for the changing field of medicine and to become leaders in their communities. These programs at Texas Tech are helping to do just that:
» To help reverse the shortage of Texas family physicians, Texas Tech’s Family Medicine Accelerated Track (FMAT) encourages med students to consider family medicine by offering scholarships and an accelerated schedule that cuts the cost of medical school by 50 percent.
» An innovative research program encourages first year medical students to conduct research in a field that interests them. The program matches students with a scientist or clinician during the summer after their first year, and also provides a stipend.
» Students are becoming trusted leaders in their communities through various volunteer opportunities offered through the Texas Medical Association (TMA) and TMA Foundation, including Hard Hats for Little Heads, a program that gives out free bike helmets to reduce head injuries, and Be Wise — ImmunizeSM, which collaborates with other community groups to offer free flu vaccines.