Dr. Robert Michler of the Ohio State University Medical Center has wanted
to be a transplant surgeon since he was 11 years old. "I was always fascinated
by the way things work. Mechanically, the heart is a beautiful organ."
Michler performs about 25 transplants and between 350 and 400 heart surgeries
per year. "Transplants only account for about 10 percent of the surgeries
I perform yearly," he says.
"It gives me great joy to have people fly in to have me operate on them,"
says Michler. "It's a hardship profession because your whole family will be
involved. It's hard to find time to do all the things I need to do -- it's
very challenging to try and juggle all those things and still focus."
It's important to keep yourself informed. "Knowledge is the key to success.
You need to know what's available on the cutting edge," says Michler.
"Stay in touch with other fields. Read Time magazine and the
lay [non-technical] press. Have your finger on the pulse of what's impacting
the nation."
What thrills Michler the most about his job? "To be able to hold a heart
in your hands and know it's a life in my hands. Few people have such a direct
impact on another human being. It's awe-inspiring that this person has left
his total being to your expertise."
Confidence is a must for a transplant surgeon. "There's an element of fear
every time one operates -- it puts you on the line professionally. What abolishes
the fear is the recognition that I've worked all my life to be where I'm at
-- I'm at the top of my game and have an incredible confidence in knowing
I can handle the challenge."
Feeling the impact she's made on another person's life is what makes surgeon
Dr. Annie Fecteau enjoy the profession so much. "Pediatric surgery in itself
impacts on a patient's life -- removing a tumor or repairing a congenital
malformation. But after a liver transplant, you know you have given your patient
a second life, and that they would have died without the transplant."
Fecteau made the decision to specialize in pediatric surgery while she
was in medical school. "I love working with children and I love surgery, so
it seemed like an obvious choice. I decided to subspecialize in liver transplants
for the challenge."
But if you're planning on pursuing a career as a transplant surgeon, you
must also realize the great commitment it requires of you. "It's a wonderfully
satisfying career, but one that takes a great commitment of time and energy,"
says Dr. Kristene Gugliuzza of the University of Texas.
"Transplantation is a very open area of medicine in that there's little
known about immunology and how we can affect the immune system -- either to
suppress it, make it tolerant or to boost it."
With the challenge also comes happiness. "It's also, for the most part,
a happy time -- like having a baby," says Gugliuzza. "The patient is off dialysis
or insulin and can lead a relatively normal life."
Gugliuzza especially likes working on children. "Transplantation offers
them a chance to grow -- mentally, physically and emotionally. Plus, they
just bounce back faster and better than adults."
Time is one thing you'll need to contribute if you plan to excel in this
career. Gugliuzza's weekdays are usually 12 hours long.
"I'm on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for donors and to do pancreas
transplants and pediatric transplants. I'm on call about half that time to
do kidney transplants in the adult population."
If that wasn't enough, Gugliuzza is on trauma and general surgery call
about three times per month, and occasionally covers for the pediatric surgeons
and the vascular surgeons.
What's the driving force behind Gugliuzza's enthusiasm? "I helped with
the procurement of organs from a six-year-old that died from complications
in a dentist's chair. Those kidneys went to a three-year-old."