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t m c » p u l s e | a u g u s t 2 0 1 7 14 Though they don't advertise, McCollum said, the program attracts students from all over the country. Some of them will return to Baylor for medical school and advanced training. The appeal of a specialty in surgery, McCollum said, is instant results. "Say a patient has acute appendicitis. You take it out, then he's well." On the phone a few days later, Izaddoost said surgeons love their jobs at least in part because they form such tight and trusting bonds with patients. "They don't stand naked in front of everybody," Izaddoost said. "Maybe a mom, a dad, their husband or wife. Nobody else has that kind of privilege, that special relationship." Surgery obsession Of all the aspiring surgeons in the sum- mer program, the doctors found Lauren Reppert, a Houston native and junior at Amherst College, among the easiest to read. "Her enthusiasm is palpable," said Edward Reece, M.D., chief of adult plas- tic surgery at Baylor. "Just imagine who all she is going to touch and inspire." During the first rotation, Reece and Reppert worked together at Ben Taub Hospital. She showed an unwav- ering interest in whatever he or the other plastic surgeons were doing and watched 40 different operations in just a month's time. At every opportunity, she was back in the OR and back on her stool. She loved the teamwork, the com- mitment, the efficiency. And she was ready to listen when the usually stoic surgeons shared their thoughts. Reece told her, "As a surgeon, you're responsible for someone's life. And before you operate, you have to be sure that you're going to impact that life for the better. That's why surgical training takes so long. Young doctors have to learn judgment." Reppert gulped and nodded. When she was not working, she was eating or sleeping at her parents' home in Tanglewood. They are oil and gas professionals. "Where did you come from?" they teased her when she was in high school at The Kinkaid School and obsessed with idea of becoming a surgeon. The Kinkaid School encourages mini internships, and Reppert took the opportunity to spend three weeks shadowing Bruce Moseley, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon. "I loved every second," Reppert said. "I was there for every single procedure, the whole day until very late. That's when I knew I wanted to do something in medicine, I thought for sure sports medicine. But plastics is really cool, too." Reppert spent the second half of the Baylor program in pediatric surgery at Texas Children's Hospital. Everything was different from Ben Taub, she said, from the look of the hospital interiors to the types of surgeries to patient follow-up. She had hoped to meet, for example, the woman who had nasal reconstruction at Ben Taub and a second patient who underwent arduous hand reconstruction. "That was somewhat of a frustra- tion," Reppert said. "The surgeries were really successful, but sometimes the patients didn't come back for their appointments. Sometimes they didn't even show for their scheduled surgeries." For Reppert it was a life lesson. Not all lives are as relatively orderly as hers. Getting in to medical school If Reppert and her new friends had one burning question, it was this: What can we do to get into medical school? At a question-and-answer session held at lunch in early July, Karen Johnson, M.D., a Baylor critical care physician and associate dean for admissions, told them participation in the summer program was an excellent place to start. A P E R S O N ' S PASS I O N I S W H AT D R I V E S T H E M . So it makes sense that their memorial should reflect that. It's what we do better than any other provider. If something truly personal is what you're looking for, you don't need to travel far. > DignityHouston.com < MEMORIAL OAKS Funeral Home & Cemetery HOUSTON 281-497-2210 FUNERAL HOME AND CEMETERY LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT THE GREATER HOUSTON AREA, INCLUDING: EARTHMAN Funeral Directors – Hunters Creek HOUSTON 713-465-8900 www.prepaidfunerals.texas.gov Find out how to celebrate a life like no other. You all have what it takes, and we hope to inspire you to become surgeons. But if you decide, 'Oh my God, there's no way I want to do this,' that's OK, too. It's better to figure it out now. — SHAYAN IZADDOOST, M.D., PH.D. Director of the Michael E. DeBakey Summer Surgery Program

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