Illinois Medicine magazine.Making of a Medicine Man

a resident’s life

by Susan Reich

photography by Lloyd DeGrane

the making of a

Medicine Man

As chief orthopaedic resident Chris George, MD, studies his craft, he learns to balance the many demands made on today’s physicians

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here is a faint glow on the horizon over Lake Michigan—a harbinger of the late November day to come—as Chris George, MD, maneuvers his nine-yearold Mazda hatchback out of the garage of his Chicago condo. After a 10-minute drive through the still-deserted streets of the South Loop, he arrives at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System, parks and grabs his white doctor’s coat from the car’s passenger seat.

As he strides through the parking structure toward the hospital’s pedestrian bridge, he glances outside and sees that the pre-dawn darkness has brightened to a shade of dusky blue. It’s the closest thing to daylight that the young resident will see today. When he returns to his car 12 hours from now, the sun will already be sinking in the west and the moon will be rising in the darkening sky.

George — a 6’4” triathlete who looks like

he could land a lead role in a medical drama—is accustomed to demanding days that stretch from dawn to dusk. The 30-year-old Des Moines native has spent the past 13 years pursuing his dream of becoming an orthopaedic physician: four years of undergraduate pre-med studies and four years of medical school at the University of Iowa followed by a five-year orthopaedic residency at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. It’s a journey that has required emotional perseverance, physical stamina, intellectual fortitude, no small amount of deferred gratification and innumerable personal sacrifices along the way.

Now the end of his journey is in sight. As George moves into the final months of his fiveyear residency, Illinois Medicine photographer Lloyd DeGrane joined him at the hospital, in the clinic and at home to give us a close-up look at the intense, exhausting and immensely fulfilling life of a UI Health resident.

Morning rounds The day begins with a patient review session. The oncall resident from the previous night updates George and his team of junior residents on the status of the patients on the orthopaedic floor. By 6:15 a.m. rounds have begun, and George stops in to chat with a post-operative patient before the junior residents arrive (at left).

“We check bandages, do focused exams, ask the patients how they are feeling and talk about the treatment plan for the day,” says George. “As the senior resident, I’m usually doing most of the talking. The junior residents change the dressings and the intern takes notes on orders.”

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“When an athlete can compete again after knee surgery or a grandmother can walk in the park with her grandkids after a hip replacement, it feels really good. The satisfaction that comes from making a difference in a patient’s life will never get old.”

THUMB surgery on a toddler By 7 a.m. on surgical rotation days, George is heading to the OR. This morning, he will assist orthopaedic attending physician Prasad Gourineni, MD, in treating a 2-yearold girl whose thumb is stuck in a bent position as if pulling a trigger.

The condition — known as stenosing tenosynovitis, or trigger thumb — is one of the more common congenital abnormalities of the hand, affecting about 2 percent of children. The surgical team will make a small incision and release the tendon to give

her thumb a full range of motion.

After scrubbing in with a fellow resident (above, left to right), George’s role includes assisting Gourineni during the surgical procedure, inspecting the patient’s incision before bandaging her hand,

visiting the young patient in the recovery room and dictating the post-operative report. Afterward, he may have 15 or 20 minutes to grab a bite to eat or a cup of coffee before the next surgery, and the process begins all over again.

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casting call George observes a casting procedure performed by orthopaedic technician Frank Radja. Clinic days often involve a visit to the orthopaedic casting room, where the residents are instructed in the proper application of a wide variety of casts and splints by a master orthopaedic cast technician.

“When I look back to the first year of my residency and remember how overwhelming it all felt and how nervous I was, I realize how far I’ve come.

It makes me feel very proud of what I’ve accomplished here.”

In the Clinic After a day in the OR, George spends a day assisting attending physicians in the Orthopaedic Clinic.

Clinic days are generally nonstop from morning until mid-afternoon, with two to four residents seeing 30 to 60 outpatients per half-day. On this day, George’s stops along the way include discussing a patient X-ray with fellow senior resident Asheesh Gupta, MD (large photo, above), following up with a patient recovering from a distal radius fracture (left), and checking the range of motion in her wrist as Mark Gonzalez, MD, chairman of the department of orthopaedics, observes.

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Unwinding at home During a rare evening of repose, George prepares the Saturday night repast with Marni. “I’m the cook in our family,” he confides. “It’s a great way to relax after a stressful day.” The evening is also a welcome respite for George’s wife, who works as a global financial systems consultant. “We both have demanding careers,” says George, “so after a long week, we love to cook dinner at home, enjoy a little downtime together and play with our miniature pinscher, Miller.”

“My biggest challenge as a resident?

Time management! Maintaining a balance.”

Going the distance break IN the action On fast-paced clinic days, which stretch from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the residents get a 30-minute mid-day break to relax and refuel — during which George multitasks in the hospital cafeteria, grabbing a cup of joe, fielding questions from junior residents and checking in with his wife, Marni.

Because the life of a resident is an endurance event in its own right, George could be forgiven for collapsing on the couch when he’s off the clock. But he pushes as hard in his recreational pursuits as he does during his medical training. A seasoned athlete who swam competitively during his college years, he has competed in many triathlons, including the Chicago Triathlon (left). In July 2011, George competed in the Racine Half Ironman Triathlon, finishing the 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bicycle ride and 13.1- mile run in five hours and 49 minutes.

George is planning to parlay his passion for athletics into a career in orthopaedic sports medicine. After completing his residency in June, he and his wife will relocate to Colorado, where he will complete a one-year sports medicine fellowship at Aspen Orthopaedic Associates.

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