Illinois Medicine

a resident's life by Susan Reich photography by Lloyd DeGrane Medicine Man T THE MAKING OF A As chief orthopaedic resident Chris George, MD, studies his craft, he learns to balance the many demands made on today's physicians 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-year- old 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 Uni- versity 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 bright- ened 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 five- year 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 on- call 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." 26 | WINTER 2012

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