Why do so few women become heart surgeons?
I recently read that 3 percent of all cardiac surgeons in the U.S. are women. The training is particularly grueling, and I don’t think that’s changed. Cardiac surgery is a tough lifestyle. I’m on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Women who eventually do go into cardiothoracic surgery tend to the thoracic part. They tend to do more lung surgery because lung surgery is less demanding. I’m hoping the book will show medical students and residents you can have a lifestyle, you can be married, have children and have a wonderful career. Do you think you approach surgery and interaction with patients differently from male colleagues because you are a woman? I hate to say I think that, because I think there are some compassionate male doctors. I will say that when I became a mother, there was this incredible nurturing side that came out of me I didn’t realize I had. I balance the toughness with the tenderness. I have to be as tough as nails in the operating room. But I have to hold a fami
