Commentary: “The Attending Case”: The Height of Hypocrisy for Academic Surgery?

During my daily commute on I-95 North towards Johns Hopkins Hospital in November 2011, I was informed that my seemingly healthy newborn son, Christopher, was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot. After a 60 second trip through all five Kubler-Ross stages, I called upon whom I considered Hopkins ’ greatest technical surgeon to repair him with the unstated expectation that Christopher's corrective operation was not going to be a “resident case”. I was troubled that, despite having dedicated my entire career to resident education and a steadfast practice to allow residents to perform as primary surgeon in all my cases, I did not feel like a hypocrite.
Source: Seminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery - Category: Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery Authors: Tags: ADULT – Commentary Source Type: research