The U of I has 4 different tracks – I was in the self-study track at the Urbana campus the first year and the last 3 years at Rockford. Rockford was a wonderful place to be in medical school because the 2nd year was only 6 months of pathology and pharmacology and the remainder of the 2nd and the entire 3rd years were rotations in the subspecialties. Also, there were only 9 family medicine residents that we interacted with only in the delivery room and the ICUs thus leaving our education to one-on-one interactions with faculty. The general rotations began in May of our 3rd year. I started with Surgery and followed it with General Medicine – this was designed to facilitate my decision-making.

I loved surgery. My decision was solidified the second day of the Medicine rotation. The weekend that I started filling out my residency applications, the wind chill factor was -80° F. I applied only south of the Mason-Dixon Line and matched at Tulane University SOM in New Orleans. I was a fish out of water! Charity Hospital was nothing like the 3 private hospitals in Rockford, Illinois. The blood drawers, IV team, code team, transportation personnel and other ancillary patient caregivers were called INTERNS. There was not a hint of the 80 hour work week – that time allotment would take me to about Thursday mid-day in a good week. And, Tulane Surgery was a good ole’ boy surgical residency. They considered themselves the “Iron Men” of Charity Hospital. I was the fourth women to finish there in 150 years and the first had finished 5 years before me. I had my work cut out for me. But “adaptable” is my middle name. I made the first cut in the PGY 3 where the number of residents in my year went from 12 to 7 (that’s a variant of a pyramid). In that year I found my passion in surgery – transplantation. In 1985, cyclosporine had been on the market for a couple of years; glucocorticoids, Imuran, cytoxan, MALG and OKT3 were it for immunosuppression. The 1 year survival rate of the allografts was ~50% and the patient survival was ~75%. But what hooked me was my first transplant.

My faculty (mentor) and I went to NO Children’s Hospital to procure kidneys from a 6 year old boy who had an anoxic brain injury in the dentist chair. Nitrous oxide was used for sedation but the child was not monitored. When it was noticed that the child’s lips and gums were blue, it was too late. Even though the family was devastated, they opened their hearts and souls and consented to donation. At that time, multi-organ procurement was not the norm, so kidneys were all that were given. The first person that received the gift was a 3 year old that had been on peritoneal dialysis for several years. During the procedure, after the artery and vein were hooked up to the child’s blood vessels, the clamps were release. For the first time, I witnessed a miracle. The soft, purple mass of tissue that was the kidney began to grow in size and turn a wonderful color of pink and urine began to flow out of the ureter almost simultaneously. So much urine was made that we had to use continuous suction to clear the area around the bladder to finish the transplant. Post-operatively, the child went from a listless little being, not growing or maturing normally, to a little fireball running up and down the halls within 3 days. I COULD DO THIS FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!

So, after 2 years of a kidney transplant fellowship at Tulane, 3 months doing pancreas transplants in Minnesota, and 8 months as an instructor at Tulane, I made the journey to Galveston. I have been very busy, and very happy, here. Not even a monstrous hurricane could drive me away. My time here has been on a circuitous trajectory. I came as the 3rd transplant faculty but that changed the day I arrived when the 2nd transplant surgeon announce he was going to New Orleans. In Dec of 1990, our pediatric surgeon announced she was leaving; so, being the only surgeon that did intra-abdominal surgical procedures on children, I assumed that position for 9 months (On the Job Training) and have taken call and filled in when vacancies happened ever since then. In 1995, our chairman retired and a new one assumed the duties; and, after letting him settle into his position, I started asking for the position of Program Director of the Surgery Residency. This took awhile (about 1998 until March 2006) but here I am. In 1999, I took over the Director of Transplant position and then gave it up to my new liver-transplant-trained partner in Nov 2007. In 1999, I also became jointly appointed in the Pediatric Department.  I am also honored to hold one of the William Osler Scholarships in the John P. McGovern Academy of Oslerian Medicine which I was awarded in 2008, and, to become the holder of the Alonzo Alverly Ross Centennial Chair in General Surgery in 2009.

With all that is on my plate, I want to be able to teach surgery in ways that will fit with the learning modes of this generation of young surgeons. Our residents are our future and I want and need for them to be the best that they can be. This is for the future generations of surgical patients; but, more selfishly, it is for when I need a surgeon when I grow up.

Oh, by the way, I love to read mystery and spy novels, watch movies with my family, and take trips anywhere. Our last adventure was to Italy for 2 weeks over the 2009 Christmas break.