By Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer Patty RyanTampa Bay Times In Print: Saturday, March 17, 2012

TAMPA Ten years ago, when Dr. Michael Flannery became director of the internal medicine residency program at the University of South Florida's medical school, he made a commitment. Each day, he would say a rosary.

Last summer, he added a new prayer: If there's anything I need to do or to know, tell me.

He had been having premonitions of his own death. His body was beginning to validate them.

Flannery had seen the muscle weakness and spasms in patients. He knew what the symptoms might mean. As he searched for a more hopeful diagnosis, he kept his fears to himself. Then, one day in August, he and his wife learned the worst:

Flannery, 51, who has devoted his life to healing and the making of healers, has a terminal disease for which there is no cure ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

He has three children, including a boy just 11. He knows he can't change the course of the disease, which could paralyze him and keep him from breathing on his own. He can only influence the memories that his family will make together until then.

And so, after the diagnosis but before others knew, he told his wife, "Let's go out and celebrate."

This is Michael Flannery. He goes to Biloxi to volunteer after Hurricane Katrina. He opens a free clinic in Pasco County. He gives educational scholarships, six a year ranging from $500 to $1,000, to future doctors, nurses and pharmacists. One is earmarked for hospital janitors who want to go back to school.

Over 21 years, he has trained hundreds of new doctors.

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With ALS, mentor to USF medical residents is now a patient