That conversation stuck with me because I found it horrifying.
Mechanical ventilation is very complex and has come a long way since the 1990's. The lung is an exceedingly complex organ, and breathing itself is an exceedingly complex bodily function that we largely take for granted until something goes wrong.
Suction devices also have their own horrifying outcomes. Someone told me a story once in the context of maximum vacuum limits of an EMT that was suctioning debris and fluid from an open brain injury and had the vacuum up so high they were vacuuming a person's brain tissue.
He worked for free, or next to nothing, taught the curriculum he wanted to (can’t afford to fire him!). Apparently he brought high end audiophile speakers to school and played classical music on them when not lecturing. The kind that cost half a year’s salary for a teacher.
I knew a humanities professor that taught a heavy course load for years, and he and his wife lived off her paycheck serving food in the university cafeteria.
Sometimes getting an unpaid adjunct position can still be extremely competitive and hard to get. Academia is pretty weird.
