General Surgery Residency
I really wanted to learn the basics of surgery, but also to be the absolute best doctor possible, so I decided to go into the hardest General Surgery program I could find. Fate brought me to the University of Texas at Houston. It is a trauma-heavy, intense, fast-paced, old-school program with a lot of autonomy, in all the right ways. It was exactly what I wanted and needed. Those five years were a demanding but defining period for me. As all med students do, I went from being a wide-eyed novice, to a chief resident running the show. I had found my calling – there is nothing like performing surgery on someone and saving their life or ridding them of disease. Deep down though, I wanted more. I wanted to possess the skills and knowledge I had seen from the plastic surgeons I encountered along the way, so I kept on going.
A Break, for Life
I met my beautiful wife while serving as a resident in Houston, and despite the rigors of the training process, we got engaged and I eventually married the woman of my dreams. The old adage, “behind every successful man is a woman,” holds especially true.
Why Plastic Surgery
A Plastic Surgeon is an artist, a problem solver, and must think outside the box. We are who other surgeons call when they are in trouble or need help. I love being “a surgeon’s surgeon,” and this was one of the main reasons I chose to pursue Plastic Surgery. I just needed a program to choose me, and thankfully, I matched at The Ohio State University for my plastic surgery residency/fellowship.
There I began a whole new process of learning and thinking about every aspect of surgery – it is truly so different and amazing. I was fortunate to train under some of the most respected plastic surgeons from around the world, and received extensive training in aesthetic surgery of the face, breast, and body, as well as microsurgical techniques and perforator flap reconstruction methods.