Five moments with attending surgeons that changed my outlook forever

Even though hospital life is fraught with challenging situations, every once in a while, someone does something that leaves an indelible mark on your training and outlook.

This is a thread dedicated to those moments with a hope that more will follow.

1. One Sat morning an elderly patient who was about to go home died suddenly from a terrible complication. My attending surgeon hugged and comforted the grieving family members for the next 20 minutes. I will never, ever forget how rare and powerful that was.

2. One very late Wednesday evening, I made a mistake while closing the skin, and everyone in the room grumbled. The fellow at the time who had not eaten anything all day patiently taught me how to do it better and handed the instrument back to me, and I haven’t made that mistake ever again

3. One Mon morning, while rounding briskly on over 20 very complicated patients, the attending surgeon stopped by one of the rooms just to say, by the way, you helped save this patient’s life, don’t’ forget that. It reminded me of what this is all about.

4. One Sun morning around 2AM, I woke up the attending surgeon at home to let him know about a patient who needed to go to the OR urgently. Without any sign of being annoyed, he said OK, let’s do the right thing. I never worried about calling him again at any hour

5. One Friday evening an attending surgeon called me. I thought I had made a mistake or missed a deadline. But she called just to thank me for having taken good care of one of her patients, and I will always remember how that made me feel.

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Jason J. Han (@JasonHanMD) is a cardiac surgery resident in Philadelphia and is part of the TMS leadership.

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The opinions expressed in the article is not affiliated with any institution, company or product. The article should not be interpreted as medical advice.