Reflections on Surgical Practice: Lessons Learned along the Way and Notes to My Young Colleagues

I still remember the last time I walked out the front door of Emory Hospital to begin my surgical journey. As I somewhat triumphantly moved across the large front lawn, the essence and significance of this step was brought starkly home to me as I thought back to an exchange that I once had with a staff anesthesiologist. We had just finished a bilateral lower extremity amputation necessitated by complications from a recent aortic bypass. As I walked out of the operating room, with some degree of self-validation, I said, “Well, sir, you cannot say we did not give it the good old college try.” He looked at me with a sharp but somewhat avuncular stare and retorted, “Yes, you are correct, but there is one real problem with that: you are not in college anymore, my man.”
Source: Journal of the American College of Surgeons - Category: Surgery Authors: Tags: Special Article Source Type: research