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Fri Aug 17 17:56:26 BST 2007

Hey Ken,

In case you haven't noticed, as short as I might be, I am still going to do my best to stand shoulder to shoulder with you in that charge!  As I said earlier, in for a penny, in for a pound!

I think that I have seen enough recently to suggest that retirement might be an option - but I beg you to ignore that thought and stick around for a few more decades!!!!  All of us need guys like you!

Ron

>>> <KMATTOX at aol.com> 8/17/2007 12:47 PM >>>
In a message dated 8/17/2007 11:28:12 A.M. Central Daylight Time,  
Rgross at harthosp.org writes:

whom  have been educated and trained under the new rules that dinosaurs like 
you and  I don't understand and won't work under.

If you are right, I will retire tomorrow.     I make no  excuses for 
requiring discipline and attention to detail, in opposition to  command and control 
character assassination of the old days.    However, for the person operating on 
me or my family, I want 100% focus and  dedication.   That is what I try to 
train.    I  currently have no problem (I THINK) with having faculty (and 
residents) that  have trained under Drs. DeBakey, Crawford, Jordan, Beall, etc. and 
K. Mattox,  wanting to work at the BTGH.     Should they be hired  elsewhere 
I might come to this list and look for new faculty that wish to be  ACUTE CARE 
SURGEONS in the mode of the General Surgeon of the 1950s, 1960s,  1970s.    I 
do find that old spirit is alive and well in the  wonderful military 
physicians that have served in Afghanistan and  Iraq.   Should the young Turks want 
only to focus on minimal  surgery through minimal exposure through minimal 
ports, that is fine and there  are places for them.     However EVERY community 
needs the  surgeon that takes care of the BIG BAD surgical challenges like 
ruptured  aneurysms and perforated colon cancers, AND THE BIG BAD  TRAUMA.    I find 
that my current residents and current faculty  really really like these kind 
of challenges.  That is why there are here  and that is what they do.     It 
is in our  genes.     I do not want a long list of faculty that punch  clocks 
and work minimally a minimal number of minutes per day on a minimum of  organs. 
  I just want a few good women and  men.        That is what acute care 
surgery  is all about.     

Ron if I have cause fear, then tell me to retire.    Ron,  and others, if we 
are excited about the most challenging area in medicine in the  future, then 
let us quietly fill that nitch and get on with being the Master  Surgeons of 
the next decade.     Join me in attention to  detail, pursuit of excellence and 
fixing the most complex problems in surgery  and medicine.   

k

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