Joel T. Adler, MD, MPH, a former fellow in BWH’s Center for Surgery and Public Health and current resident in General Surgery at MGH, and fellow surgeons exchanged tweets on April 6 that sparked a conversation and prompted surgeons from all over the country to share what inspired them to choose a career in surgery.

Adler asked the question, “What’s your story?” and it turned into #SurgStory.

BWHers were encouraged to join in too.

Adil Haider, MD, MPH, Kessler director of the CSPH, shared his story.

(If you want to know which TV surgeon inspired him, check out Haider’s profile from a previous issue of CRN.)

Marissa Boeck, MD, MPH, a current CSPH fellow who is doing research in Bolivia, also shared her moment of inspiration.

Rebecca Scully, MD, is a resident in General Surgery at BWH and Cabot Fellow in CSPH.

Scully recalled a surgical team saving a woman’s fingers after she had developed disseminated intravascular coagulation or DIC. The patient’s body had begun to shut down and she would have lost the fingers in her hand due to lack of blood supply. The team attached the woman’s hand to her femoral artery, an artery in her leg, to preserve blood flow until the patient had stabilized, saving her fingers.

Andrew Schoenfeld, MD, MSc, a clinician scientist in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery and core faculty in CSPH, found his calling after reading Atul Gawande’s, MD, MPH, first book, Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science.

Navin Changoor, MD, a postdoctoral research fellow at the CSPH, found inspiration abroad.

BWH surgeons can share their 140-character stories on Twitter about what inspired them to choose their career path using the hashtag #SurgStory. To see more tweets from surgeons, check out Adler’s Storify.