“ One of the visiting professors had collapsed in this huge classroom during a lecture . I was in the hallway , came in and did CPR on him with my differential equation ’ s teacher and more than 200 onlooking students . We ultimately found out that he had a heart attack and died on the way to the hospital , but I felt that if I actually knew what I was doing , maybe I could have saved him . I was just an engineering student , but if I really knew hardcore , critical care medicine , maybe it would have turned out differently . I called my father and told him about it and that I wanted to go to medical school , and he said , ‘ Well , only if you really want to .’”

The irony of his father ’ s statement was strong . He ’ d not-so-subtly rejected every other career path his son had considered from photojournalist to district attorney to engineer . But it came from a good place , his father , Dr . Stuart Cohen , was a family practitioner in Louisville for 44 years and he wanted to see his children also go into medicine . As his younger brother puts it , “ Our father always told us we could do whatever we wanted to … after medical school .”

His oldest brother , Dr . Howard Cohen , is a psychiatrist in Dallas , Texas . His second oldest brother is Dr . Corey Cohen , an emergency medicine physician with UofL Health . The youngest brother , Dr . Jonathan Cohen , is a neonatologist with Norton Children ’ s Neonatology . Their sister , Amy , to this day , is perhaps the only one bold enough to stand up to their father . She decided to go the non-medical route

and was a copy editor and teacher before becoming a stay-at-home mom to four daughters , the youngest two , 28-week premature twins that Dr . Cohen cared for over 23 years ago .

Knowing from that day that he wanted to go to medical school , he began preparing for the MCAT . Because of his engineering background , he had taken physics as a freshman , a course most premed students save for junior year , and was able to take the MCAT a year early . Upon receiving good scores , he submitted them to the University of Louisville School of Medicine for consideration . They recommended he apply early , and he was accepted early admission , a year before he finished college .

“ I went on to medical school without my college degree . During the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of medical school , I went back to college , and I tested out of everything that I was missing . I technically got my engineering degree from the University of Florida in December 1987 , which was 18 months after I already started medical school .”

Pretty early on in medical school , Dr . Cohen had a good idea of what specialty he wanted to go into , by rule of exclusion .

“ I decided to first go into pediatrics , not because of the kids so much , but because I really did not enjoy working with adults .” He went on to explain that at that time , before there was a focus on wellness , adult medicine seemed to be centered around the consequences of “ self-abusive behaviors ” - heart disease , diabetes , COPD and the like . Early during medical school , he was exposed to neonatal intensive care and was drawn to the innovation , science and physics

30 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE