News Archive

She could tell the car crash was a bad one. It made her late for work.

Dr. Melanie Heniff is an emergency room physician in IU Methodist's Level 1 Trauma Center. She was stopped on Interstate 65 South thanks to the accident in the interstate's northbound lanes on September 30. She called a co-worker to say she would be late, and that she expected people in the accident would be brought to their hospital. The pile-up was so severe that all lanes of traffic were shut down.

Jared Thomas was one of those people. He was on his way north to his job with the Purdue Athletics Department’s Office of Strategic Initiatives before traveling back to Indianapolis in the evening for classes.

Dr. Heniff, a member of the faculty at the IU School of Medicine, is an IU McKinney 3L and a Hall Render Health Law scholar, also working toward a Master of Health Administration degree through the IU Fairbanks School of Public Health. On the day of the accident, her shift in the ER would be capped by a class with Professor Frank Sullivan.

Thomas is a 2L from West Lafayette. The United States Military Academy at West Point graduate spent five and a half years on active duty, including a deployment to Iraq, before coming to law school at IU McKinney. On the day of the accident, his day was supposed to end with his Closely Held Business Organizations class.

One might think that being in a car crash so intense that it closed all lanes of an interstate would leave a person, at least initially, unconcerned about their daily commitments. Law students are wired differently.

"I was so stressed about missing class," Thomas said. "I was pretty clearly going to have to miss work, and I had three classes later that evening."

After discussing the treatment for his injuries, Thomas asked Dr. Heniff if she thought he would be able to make it to his classes that day. She said no, and in fact, attending classes the rest of the week was out of the question.

They discovered they were both IU McKinney students, but when Dr. Heniff said her last class ended at 9:05 p.m., Thomas asked if she was a student in Closely Held Business Organizations, because there aren't that many classes at IU McKinney that end at that time on a Monday evening.

"It was the first time I'd ever emailed a doctor's excuse to a professor," Dr. Heniff said.

"It shows the strength, skill, and intelligence of this student body," Thomas said of learning that Dr. Heniff was his classmate. "Particularly the strength of the night students—Emergency Physician by day, law school student by night! At an incredibly stressful time for me, it was comforting to know the person treating me was a classmate. There was an immediate trust factor, with her being a McKinney student, that eliminated a lot of the stress from the situation. All of my professors were incredibly caring and understanding, as well, which also helped!"

"He was a wonderful patient," Dr. Heniff said of Thomas. "Very stoic and calm. I suppose it relates to his military training and experience."

Dr. Heniff had been interested in attending law school since she attended undergraduate studies at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in fact thought then about a dual-degree M.D./J.D., but felt that it was too big of a commitment at that time of her life.

"The fortunate thing for me when I decided to go to law school was, here's this law school with this wonderful health law program," Dr. Heniff said. "I would not have been able to do that in Chicago when I was in medical school at Rush Medical College" She intends to remain in medicine, and do some legal consulting as well, focusing on health law.

Thomas plans to complete the Corporate and Commercial Law Graduate Certificate and the Civil and Human Rights Law Graduate Certificate. He hopes to pursue a career in either Collegiate Athletics or Government.

"At McKinney, we get to cross paths with some pretty amazing individuals every single day,” Thomas said. "I consider myself extremely fortunate to be able to connect with some of those individuals—even in less-than-ideal circumstances like this one!"

In the photo from left are Dr. Melanie Heniff and Jared Thomas at Inlow Hall.