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MD Magazine®
Internist Persevered Through Childhood Molestation
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Becoming a physician requires considerable effort and often involves overcoming significant hurdles. For Frank Spinelli, MD, FACP, his hurdle was being sexually abused by his scoutmaster.
Becoming a physician requires considerable effort and often overcoming significant hurdles. Frank Spinelli, MD, FACP, a licensed and board-certified internist working at Chelsea Village Medical in New York City, says that’s as it should be.
But when those hurdles include being sexually abused by your scoutmaster, who was also a beloved local police officer, the deck might seem stacked against you.
Those were the odds facing Spinelli.
“When I was molested, it completely derailed me because of the consequences that happened afterward,” Spinelli recalls. “I felt shame and guilt, and I blamed myself. And I ended up losing a scholarship to NYU. I really was thinking about alternatives. I asked colleagues, ‘What should I do?’ And I had several good advisors tell me, ‘If this is your dream, do it.’”
Today Spinelli looks back and knows he got some good advice.
