I was working nights in general surgery and decided to look for a new daytime position with an operating room (OR) focus and surgical specialty, where I could hone my skills. I did a weeklong externship following a transplant surgeon during my undergraduate training, which I really enjoyed. When I saw online there was a physician assistant (PA) with the PTI transplant surgery team role open, I thought it was the perfect fit for me. I’ve been in this role since October 2022 and I’m really loving it.
My time is split between the outpatient clinic and assisting with living donor robotic and laparoscopic surgeries. I’m with the abdominal transplant team, which performs kidney, pancreas and liver transplants. My main role is with the procurement team for deceased donors, so I travel to other hospitals to recover organs for transplant.
Living donors are truly amazing and inspiring. They are donating out of the goodness of their hearts and receiving nothing in return. We have had patients who found their donors through Facebook posts, church bulletins, or just by reaching out to our donor program because they were inspired by a life event. It’s really incredible.
Transplant is a really unique field, and it’s great to help give people a second chance. It was a huge learning curve at first, understanding the different surgeries and how to evaluate a patient for transplant, but I had good mentors and quickly adapted to the transplant lifestyle. A vast majority of my job is about being flexible. Going out for donor surgeries can be a lot of ‘hurry up and wait,’ with accommodating donor hospital schedules or working with different teams during a case. However, at the end of the day, it’s always worth it when we arrive back to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) with a liver for transplant.
Our team is great. The surgeons, PAs, NPs, nurses; everyone has a good attitude, and we work well together. We also chip in wherever we’re needed. I generally work on the donor side of transplant, but on busy days, I help with recipients as well.
When I’m not working, I’m out running. I’ve ran 6 marathons so far including New York (twice), Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, and Berlin. My goal is to run all the major marathons. I’m running London in the spring of 2024 and after that will have Tokyo left to complete.