I was out driving my scooter one day when I was 15-years-old and got cut off by a teacher driving a car, although I had the right of way. I wound up with a serious shoulder and knee injury. A second accident and a stomach illness followed shortly afterward. This meant that I had to spend a total of nine months in the hospital during my youth. I even had to be fed intravenously for three of these months. Much of the treatment that I received in the hospital back then was administered by a very competent and caring medical student. I think that period of misfortune was very formative and influenced my later decisions. I know I wanted to become a doctor to more or less pass on what I had been given as a patient. And today, anytime I attend one of my patients at the clinic, I have a vivid recollection of when I myself was a patient.
The goal of becoming a doctor was not just one among many for me. It was my goal. It didn't matter that my high school grades were poor or that my teachers often tried to discourage me by saying I wasn't fit for academics and that I wouldn't survive ardors of medical school. Getting into medical school wasn't easy. I was rejected by schools in France, Holland, South Africa, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and Turkey. Then I saw my chance when I was accepted by a school in Romania, where I first had to learn the language as a condition for beginning. After four semesters, a dream came true when I was finally able to transfer to a German university. In the end, I completed my certifying examination under Professor Heberer and Professor Wirth at Munich University - with the highest grade.
Another important source of inspiration for me goes back to my childhood when I was allowed to accompany my father to his model building shop. He was a cabinet maker by trade and later became an industrial designer. At a very early age, I had learned all kinds of manual skills from my father. These skills came in handy during medical school because they allowed me to get a part-time job at an auto repair shop so that I could help finance my education. This is where I learned a lot about movement and mechanics - and that it is best to get at the root of problems so as to avoid worse problems.
This principle and the basic principles of mechanics also apply to orthopedics. Pain in a joint is usually an indication that there is something wrong with the joint's mechanics. If you only treat the pain, you merely switch off the warning signal and effectively accept the risk that the condition will become worse and cause even greater injury. This is why it is always my aim when treating a patient to identify the cause of the joint pain. Removing the cause of the problem is the best treatment for the patient.
P. Baum, M.D.
Medical Training:
1985 Graduation from medical school at Munich University
1985 Dissertation
1990 Certification as an orthopedic specialist
Professional Experience
- Department of Surgery (Nice University Hospital in France)
- Department of Traumatology (Eggenfelden, Germany)
- Department of Surgery (Red Cross Hospital)
- Department of Orthopedics (Markgröningen, Germany)
- Department of Orthopedics (Pforzheim, Germany)
- Sports medicine
- Chiro therapy
- Neural therapy
- Sonography (soft tissue, joints)
- Sonography (infants, children)
- Arthroscopic surgery
- Acupuncture
- Extracorporeal shockwave therapy
- Moderator for quality promotion committees
- Arthroplasty
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
- X-ray diagnostics
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