Intro: It's Your Health Radio, a special podcast series presented by Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. Here's Melanie Cole.

Melanie Cole, MS (Host): Do you really know what the duties of a trauma surgeon in a level 2 trauma center really entail, and what a typical day might look like? Well, we're here to walk through a day in the life of a Henry Mayo trauma surgeon.

Welcome to It's Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. I'm Melanie Cole. And joining me today is Dr. Louie-Marc Contreras. He's a trauma surgeon and Chief of the Medical Staff at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. Dr. Contreras, I'm so glad to have you join us again today. Before we get into a day in the life of a trauma surgeon, tell us a little bit about yourself and how long you've been with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital.

Dr. Louie-Marc Contreras: I'm a trauma surgeon. I started residency in 1998, finished training in 2004 and I've been with Henry Mayo since 2004. So, this would be 20 years, two decades here at Henry Mayo.

Melanie Cole, MS: Wow. And I remember you and I had a conversation when you became Chief of the Medical Staff. How's that going?

Dr. Louie-Marc Contreras: It's going well. It's going well. A lot of fun and I enjoy it very much.

Melanie Cole, MS: And I'm sure your staff respects and enjoys being around you too, because you are a great doctor and a nice man. So now, you're going to tell us what it's like to be a trauma surgeon. First, tell us what is a trauma surgeon? What kind of specialized training do you really have to have?

Dr. Louie-Marc Contreras: A trauma surgeon, for all intents and purposes, is a surgeon that deals with trauma. It sounds very simplistic, but trauma has multiple facets to it. There's the time factor for it, there's the acuity of it, and also the need to save someone's life immediately and expeditiously in an organized matter. And so, think of it as a lighthouse in the chaos. That's how I like to think of a trauma surgeon.

Melanie Cole, MS: Henry Mayo is a level 2 trauma center. What does level 2 mean? What kind of traumas are we talking about?

Dr. Louie-Marc Contreras: The designations for trauma range from level 1, 2, and 3. For a level 1, just to go through the whole gambit is where every resource is available, every physician, every subspecialty that's needed. And when I say subspecialties, we're talking about Neurosurgery, Orthopedic Surgery, ENT, Cardiothoracic surgeons, everyone's available immediately in-house. The next level 2 that is a level 2, seeing the same amount and types of patients, but not to that stringent degree where everyone has to be in-house. The trauma surgeon is in-house for a level 2. But the subspecialists have to be within a certain time period away from the hospital to respond expeditiously.

Melanie Cole, MS: A certain time period. Is there a set time period?

Dr. Louie-Marc Contreras: There is, yeah. There are designated time periods that we have the subspecialists be able to see the patient when we need them to be available whenever we call them.

Melanie Cole, MS: I'd like to talk to you about the stress of your job. So, you have to be on-call at all times. As you said, the trauma surgeon's available all time. And some of the subspecialties just have to be on-call, but not right there in-house all the time. What does on-call mean in your situation? Do you have to be in the hospital all times while you're on-call? And how much stress does this job entail?

Dr. Louie-Marc Contreras: To be on-call would mean that you're available when they need you and when they call you, hence the term on-call. And for the trauma surgeon, you have to be in-house for however long your shift is. It can range from 12 hours to a 24-hour shift. And you have to be prepared to take in any trauma and deal with the trauma and treat them expeditiously and appropriately.

Melanie Cole, MS: So now, answer my question about stress, Dr. Contreras. I mean, is this a really high stress job?

Dr. Louie-Marc Contreras: I would say so. I don't really think about the stress as much anymore realistically until someone asks. But I can imagine it's a very stressful job because there's a lot of chaos in it. It's not like any other specialty where you kind of know what you're going to get. The emergency room comes closest to it probably. But say like an orthopedic surgeon that you're seeing someone in the office, you know what you're getting. You can plan it and you can schedule it for a time period. In a trauma situation. You can get anything. There's two types of traumas. There's blunt trauma, and there's also penetrating trauma. And anything can be injured. Anything can need care and treatment, and you have to figure out what you need to fix immediately, and you have to figure out what subspecialists you need to help treat that patient. And so, there's a lot that goes into it and you have to do that fast and the room for error is very minimal as well. So in that context, I can imagine it being perceived as very stressful.

Melanie Cole, MS: Now, when you say on-call for you, you're on-call during your shift. So basically, you're involved in shift work, whereas when I talk to like my gynecologist, her on-call is different. I mean, two in the morning or seven in the morning or whenever it is, it's three days on-call. She has to deliver babies at all the time, but yours is really shift work. When you are done with your shift, you're done, right? They don't call you in.

Dr. Louie-Marc Contreras: Yeah. You will have to switch over to another trauma surgeon that takes over for the next call period. That's correct.

Melanie Cole, MS: So, that's when you really get to rest, huh?

Dr. Louie-Marc Contreras: Yes. If that's all you do. And many trauma surgeons also have general surgery practices. And so, they continue with that as well on the next day.

Melanie Cole, MS: What do you do? As long as we're talking about that day in the life, what do you do during that 24-hour shift? Do you have time to eat? Do you sit around on your phone? Are you always doing paperwork? What is it like?

Dr. Louie-Marc Contreras: Well, sometimes I do a podcast. But in general, yeah, we rounded the trauma patients for the system that we developed here at Henry Mayo. The person on-call will take care of everyone in-house, anyone's admitted to the hospital, round on them, make sure that they're getting the treatments that they need, and then also be ready for the traumas that come in through the emergency room on an emergency basis, and that's a typical day. And it's unpredictable. Sometimes, you'll get quite a bit of trauma. Sometimes, there may be a lull in between.

Melanie Cole, MS: I imagine at certain holidays, Halloween, you know, that there's traumas and things that come in, 4th of July, things like that. And we'll have to do a podcast on those specifically when those holidays happen and the traumas that you see and the fingers lost and the burns and things. So, we'll do one of those at some other time. Now, shifting gears for a second, what do you find most satisfying about being a trauma surgeon, Dr. Contreras? What is your philosophy of care?

Dr. Louie-Marc Contreras: My personal philosophy in medicine in general is the ability to use the surgical skill and skill set to restore human beings to their community and to live a life of vitality. That's my personal motto. And it kind of extends into the trauma field as well, because lot of the traumas that we get are accidents, obviously. And some of them are from accidents from people you know, going through their daily lives. And they need that support system, and I feel that we're that support system to ensure that the community and the people are able to live their daily lives in the manner that they wish. And if they need help, we're there to help them.

Melanie Cole, MS: I want to expand on that for just a second, Dr. Contreras, when you're dealing with car crash and these horrible traumas, the families that come in with. The spouses, partners, kids, all of those things, or certainly if there's kids that come in. Tell me about how you deal with the families, because in some respects that's got to be as difficult as dealing with the patient themselves.

Dr. Louie-Marc Contreras: It's equally difficult and probably more difficult. Because a lot of times the patients, you're able to treat expeditiously and they just want to be fixed and we're able to fix them, but the families are the ones dealing with the stress of the waiting the unknown. And the big void that they create just waiting as a natural process of waiting in the waiting room and getting updates. And so, there's that aspect of it. And that's what I like to say that there's a darkness to the trauma. There's a good in the darkness and like anything else. And I think that's what actually gives value to being a trauma surgeon to recognize that.

Melanie Cole, MS: Along those lines then, if there's a darkness but also a lightness because you are saving lives. And you're dealing with really, really difficult situations, what would you say to a young person who thinks they might want to be a trauma surgeon?

Dr. Louie-Marc Contreras: For all intents and purposes, go for it. It's a very satisfying job, profession. And really, it's a calling, and it's a privilege. I think that whatever you believe in, you know, your maker, your god, or whatever your system is or religion, it's a privilege granted by the universe for you to be able to intervene. People don't realize this. As a trauma surgeon, if you have to, and you have to perform surgery, that act of surgery is a big deal. You're opening up a human being and you're taking that person's life into your hands. And like you were alluding to, not only his life, but the people around him, he or she, the mothers, the fathers, the brothers, the sisters, you're taking that in that one moment, as soon as you make that first incision. And it's a privilege.

Melanie Cole, MS: Wow. How lovely. I can hear that in your voice, Dr. Contreras, the compassion and the passion for what you do. Because what you do is so different than so many of us can even imagine. And while we talk to doctors, and as you say, orthopedic and neurologic, all these other doctors have these planned surgeries, and they plan them, they're scheduled. You know, I mean, I had surgery, it was scheduled, but yours isn't. It's an unscheduled situation and the way that you approach it is really very inspiring. So, thank you.

And as we wrap up, what would you like the community to know about Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital's Trauma Program and any final takeaways that you would like people to hear about the day in the life of a trauma surgeon?

Dr. Louie-Marc Contreras: Well, the trauma program, there's six trauma surgeons in our program. The trauma program for Henry Mayo for this community is a lifeline and a symbol of hope. And our message has always been, for this hospital, and we've been pushing for this for a while now, is that we care, and that's what we do. We treat injuries, and we also treat people. Like I said, we restore them to their community, and we're restoring people to their utmost potential and their futures, and bringing them back to their families and friends.

Melanie Cole, MS: Wonderful. Beautifully put. Dr. Contreras, thank you so much for joining us today and really sharing your expertise and what it's like to do this incredible job that you do. So, thank you again. And to learn more about Henry Mayo's Trauma Program, visit henrymayo.com/trauma. You can also visit the free health library. It's an informational library at library.henrymayo.com.

That concludes this episode of It's Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. Please always remember to subscribe, rate, and review It's Your Health Radio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and Pandora. I'm Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for joining us today.