One day in 1985 the Dean of the Medical School called Dr. Barbara P. Guyer, director of Marshall's H.E.L.P. program, to tell her one of his students wasn't doing very well in medical school.

It's not uncommon for some people to do poorly in medical school, but he told Guyer there was something different about this one.

The student has a 4.0 grade point average in college, and he had been working very hard in medical school.

The dean thought the student might have dyslexia, which would impair the student's ability to understand what he read.

"I had never thought about anybody in medical school having a learning disability before," Guyer said.

"When we tested him he has an I.Q. level well into the genius range, and he was reading on a beginning high school level."

"He'd always known he was different. Although he was an honor student, he said he always had to work much harder than his peers," Guyer said.

"He always thought he was mentally retarded, but he said he thought if he worked extra hard nobody would notice."

"I told him he was probably much more intelligent than his professors (because of his exceptionally high IQ level)."

Mario Morenas, a second-year Marshall medical student, was also having problems in medical school.

Morenas said he had always had to work harder than his friends when he was an undergraduate, and he always knew he was different. I never had much of a social life. I spent most of my time studying.

"I had an initial interview with Dr. Guyer, and then went through two days of testing. A few weeks later I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder."

Guyer said many are placed on Ritalin, a commonly prescribed drug for people who have Attention Deficit Disorder or A.D.D.

Morenas said knowing that he had A.D.D. was only the first step in solving it.

Last year Morenas enrolled in Medical H.E.L.P., a program for physicians and physicians in-training with learning disabilities such as A.D.D. and dyslexia.

Medical H.E.L.P. is the only program in the country designed to help medical students and physicians cope with their learning disabilities.

The program began in the summer of 1985 with three students.

"After this young man was referred (the first medical student diagnosed with a learning disability) about three other sort of appeared. We began that summer working with them in a classroom in Harris Hall for four hours every afternoon We worked on their reading and their reading comprehension skills, their test-taking skills, and their study skills."

The program cost $1,500 for West Virginia residents and $3,000 for nonresidents.

Medical students also have to pay tuition for six credit hours if they want to take Medical H.e.L.P. For independent study.

Guyer says 125 people from across the country have participated in the program.

Morenas said the program helped a lot.

The Medical H.E.L.P. staff showed Morenas different ways to study, like diagramming the things he was studying.

Guyer said drawing maps of the things being studied helps students learn things such as the cardiovascular system.

"We encourage them to use color coding; always use yellow for the urinary tract and anything related to it, and always use red for blood. They really have a good time with that."

"After they have done the mapping, we make them go through it out loud, and then they close their eyes and visualize it. They can then take that visualization into a test with them."

Morenas said the program helped to increase his reading speed and making diagrams of the things he was studying helped him to memorize material.

Medical H.E.L.P. conducts two five-week sessions a year. One from mid-January to mid-Feburary, and another from mid-June to mid-July.

"We have a class in January and one in the summer, and we also see people individually throughout the year," Guyer said.

"Usually physicians are the ones who come in individually."

Guyer said she first learned of practicing physicians with learning disabilities three years ago.

"I spoke in Philadelphia three years ago at a medical convention about dyslexia. Afterwards a physician came up to me and said he had come there to hear me because his daughter had been diagnosed with dyslexia, but [he said] you have just described me."

He came from the Midwest to Marshall to be tested, and his IQ was in the genius range, but he was reading at an upper elementary level.

"He looked like 'Dr. Success' until you began to talk to him. Then if you asked very penetrating question, you quickly find he was not a very happy person," Guyer said.

"He was a radiologist. He had lost a large malpractice suit, because he had reversed something on an X-ray, and at the time he came to Medical H.E.L.P. he was triple checking his work, because he was anxious about making another mistake."

Guyer taught him to touch the X-ray and to get close to the X-ray which involve more than one sensory channel.

Using these techniques, he now only double checks instead of triple checks his work.

"He thought he was stupid," Guyer said. "But now he knows he just learns differently than other people."

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