Shall We Call Dr. K?

Wow, what do you do when your "personal brand" is potentially shredded by another?

Faced with the deteriorating condition of a loved one, my brother and I were touring a nursing facility. It's a really wonderful place, with a large staff of nuns, which will resonate nicely with the loved one I mentioned.

We were asking questions about a variety of things, and the subject of on-site doctors came up. The charming young nun leading our tour said:

"Oh, yes, we have three on-call doctors -- Dr. Smith, Dr. Jones and Dr. Kevorkian."

Silence. Raised eyebrows.

"Yeah, we just call him 'Dr. K.' instead."

Wow, so many jokes.

Can you imagine -- in this facility full of senior citizens with serious health issues -- hearing over the P.A. system: "Paging Dr. Kevorkian. Dr. Kevorkian, please report to room 324"? Yikes.

Or...

"Well, we had another visit from Dr. Kevorkian."
"How many visits from Dr. Kevorkian does one actually need?"

Or...

"Shall we call Dr. Kevorkian?" (And depending on the day, the answer may vary.)

It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when Elaine dates a guy who has the same name as a serial killer. But the stakes are higher here: he's a doctor; you're a doctor. It's not like you're dealing with that name while running a dry cleaners.

I'm genuinely curious to know how the (in)famous Dr. Kevorkian has impacted our local Dr. K's business. Perhaps we'll have occasion to discuss.