Duke Hoops Star Making the Rounds--at University Hospital

DURHAM, N.C. —  Georgia Schweitzer has come a long way in her four years at Duke--on and off the court.

Schweitzer was so squeamish in high school that she couldn’t stand the sight of blood and refused to even step inside the training room.

At Duke, she spent much of her first semester in tears. She cried because she was homesick; she cried during conditioning. She was shy and unsure of herself and never wanted the ball in a game.

“She was a skinny, little, scrawny kid with no confidence,” Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said.

No more. Schweitzer, the Blue Devils’ senior point guard, has become such a forceful leader that teammates don’t feel right when she isn’t on the floor. She has played through injuries and pain that would have grounded most others. She’s one of the strongest players on the team and the best jumper. She can sit down in a hospital and chat up a stranger as if she has known that person for years.

Hospital?

Oh yes, the kid whose stomach used to turn when she saw blood is now preparing to become a doctor.

Patient Planning

Once a week, Schweitzer accompanies Dr. Henry Friedman on his rounds at the Brain Tumor Center at the Duke hospital. And she doesn’t just stand in the background.

Schweitzer, who turned 22 on Jan. 31, does basic neurological examinations, works up patient histories and presents her findings to Friedman. Then they work together on a plan for that patient.

“Right now she’s acting like a third-year medical student,” Friedman said. “For an undergraduate to do the kind of things she does is virtually unheard of.”

It seemed inevitable that Schweitzer would develop an interest in medicine. She has, after all, seen enough doctors during her time at Duke.

As a freshman, Schweitzer played in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament 11 days after an emergency appendectomy. She played in every game as a sophomore despite arthroscopic knee surgery, a shoulder injury that required postseason surgery and a broken rib in the NCAA tournament.

Last season, when she was the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year, Schweitzer played the last 11 games with a chunk of bone missing from her right ankle.

All that and she has never missed a game.

“I’ve had injuries and stuff, but geez, most people have to sit out at least a couple of games in their career because of something, and I’ve been able to play,” Schweitzer said.

“People say, well, how do you play with the pain? I always say it would be a lot harder sitting out. I think that would hurt a lot worse.”

So a medical career began to sound enticing, but she had to pass a major test first: organic chemistry, known to Duke students as The Beast.

“It’s like if you’re premed and you can get through that, you’re home free,” Schweitzer said.

She took the course the summer before her junior year, 12 weeks of near constant study, and did well, she said. “Without basketball, it was amazing how much I could study.”

Serendipity’s Role

Meeting Friedman was the next step, and that happened purely by chance.

Taking a break from her chemistry studies that summer, Schweitzer wandered over to the gym to shoot. Duke’s summer camp for girls was going on, and Schweitzer asked one of the youngsters to rebound for her.

Her newfound friend turned out to be Sara Friedman, the doctor’s daughter.

“I said I was premed and she goes, ‘Oh, my parents are both doctors,’ ” Schweitzer said. “And I’m like, well . . .”

Later, in a note to the Duke coaching staff thanking them for his daughter’s camp experience, Friedman mentioned that Sara had met Schweitzer and if she wanted to do anything at the hospital to call him. She did, they talked and they’ve been working together since.

The work has given Schweitzer a new perspective on medicine--and on life. All those injuries she had seem pretty minor now.

“The first time I actually went into the room with him, I was like, wow, it’s heavy stuff. You’re not talking about sprained ankles,” Schweitzer said. “It was very enlightening. I get all upset about winning and losing basketball games, but to experience this, it really puts things in perspective.”

She does not leave the hospital depressed, however. Quite the opposite. The Brain Tumor Center has a motto: “At Duke, there is hope.” Schweitzer said she sees that fulfilled every time she’s there.

“Usually I come right to practice afterward, and they all say I’m beaming,” Schweitzer said. “People come there and are told by their other doctors that they’re going to die or they’re given a time frame.

“But Dr. Friedman would always come in and say, ‘I’m never going to say that. I’m never going to give up.’ It gives you jitters. . . . Just watching the people hear that, you see this big sigh of relief. It makes me feel so good to be able to give people that hope.”

The Court Doctor Is In

She does the same for her team, which is ranked fifth nationally and won the ACC title. Schweitzer is Duke’s career leader in 3-pointers and is fourth in scoring and assists.

“She’s just incredible,” freshman Rometra Craig said. “It’s like whenever she’s on the court, I feel comfortable because if I don’t know what I’m doing, I know she’s there to guide me.”

Schweitzer is a Type A personality all the way. Intense. Driven. Hates to lose. During a game-type scrimmage in a recent practice, Schweitzer got so upset about missing a free throw at the end that she flung the ball off the backboard. No one raised an eye.

That’s just Georgia.

“I told Georgia she’s one of the few people I know that is passionate about everything she does,” Goestenkors said. “You’re lucky, I think, if you’re passionate about one thing in your life, and Georgia is passionate about almost everything in her life.

“Working in the hospital, I just love to listen to her talk about that, because you can see the passion, you can see the love and the joy.”

Passion. Drive. Smarts. She has the ingredients a doctor needs, Friedman said, plus one other.

“If you want to be a physician, you have to have a fourth thing. You have to like people,” he said. “She’s got extraordinarily good talents for relating to people, putting people at ease, making them comfortable in their situation.

“She won’t be just a good physician; she’ll be a great physician.”