caseload and scheduled more outpatient cases. But the pain
remained, and Dr. Levin devoted more time to training and educating
another surgeon. "I thought, 'I'm probably not going to be working
here forever, so why not teach somebody the things I know?'" he says.
When a colleague went on disability due to hip problems, Dr.
Levin further assessed his career's pending mortality. "I saw there
was an option to go on medical disability and bow out gracefully,"
he says.
Dr. Levin's career had a joyful epilogue. A few times a year, he'd
assist on cases, which he found mentally satisfying. In 2016, he
was asked to work for three to six months as an operating room
first assistant.
"I didn't want to put in too many hours, and I didn't want to get hurt
again," says Dr. Levin. He agreed to work two half-days a week, but
the supposedly temporary assignment ended up lasting three-and-a-
half years. "I loved it," says Dr. Levin. "I didn't have to maintain total
stationary focus and didn't have the constraints I had as a primary sur-
geon. I really enjoyed it and didn't have any neck problems doing any
of it."
Abused and neglected
Peter Nichol, MD, PhD, a pediatric surgeon at UW Health American
Family Children's Hospital in Madison, Wis., said in a 2012 American
College of Surgeons article, "Our bodies have been abused and neg-
lected." Eight years later, he reports, the situation hasn't changed
much.
He knows several surgeons in rough physical shape, reciting a litany
of hip replacements and neck operations. "A lot of us are breaking
down. There's a culture among surgeons that we're going to gut it out
and be tough," he says, reminiscing about the "hair on fire" environ-
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