After many years of training, I have graduated from residency and am now a board-eligible general surgeon. I was one of more than 1,000 candidates who attempted to take the American Board of Surgery (ABS) Qualifying Examination on July 16, 2020. What …
Papa was a seasonal farmworker. This job was noted to be “slave work” by the American locals. Still, he traveled from Jamaica to Florida and toiled in fields to send money home to his wife and eleven children for several years. Unable to read and write…
I am a voyeur of human anatomy. Not in a perverse sense, but rather as part of my profession. In a single day, I can watch a heart beating in its chest cavity in one operating room, walk two doors down to view an exposed brain, and then cross the hallw…
The warm rays of the sun serenade me as I drive to work eager to begin another shift. I find a parking spot on the first floor of the garage don my N95 mask and walk towards the hospital. First, I must stop by at the neighboring building and have my te…
An excerpt from The Surgeon’s Obol. July 1, 8 p.m. “Isabella Isaksen,” I said with an arm extended. “Most people call me ‘Izzie’.” “Mike Gunderson,” came the reply. Most people called him Gundy, but…
I have been an academic surgeon in a large medical center in New York City for the past 20 years. The current climate of scrutiny to systemic racism and bias (including prejudice against all “different” populations) coupled with our own struggles with…
Yeah. I said it. As an anesthesiologist, especially as a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist, there are few things I am more interested in than how well or how poorly your heart functions and why. And a cardiologist can help me obtain a lot of vital infor…
“This pandemic presents a unique opportunity for senior anesthesiologists to see the benefit of accommodating the health care needs of our workforce. Just as I tried to avoid the teratogenic effects of certain cases when pregnant, we should consi…
When I was in Sweden, I heard this phrase several times: “There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad preparation.” They said this when we asked them what they did with their children in dead of winter. The proud parents made it very clear that no …
I never expected to have a friend from Alabama. My upbringing in Brooklyn, New York, didn’t include anyone from the South, and this was a time in American history when the South was in turmoil. I recall black and white images on our family’s TV showing…
