TY - JOUR T1 - Why I am interested in acute care surgery as my career JF - Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open JO - Trauma Surg Acute Care Open DO - 10.1136/tsaco-2021-000864 VL - 6 IS - 1 SP - e000864 AU - Toba Bolaji Y1 - 2021/12/01 UR - http://tsaco.bmj.com/content/6/1/e000864.abstract N2 - For as long as I can remember, in my pursuit of medicine and surgery, I have always been intrigued by the field of trauma. Truthfully, my interest was based in a fantasy of what I thought the field represented and who I thought trauma surgeons were. For me, it meant being a real-life superhero, using your mind and hands to save lives. I assumed the archetype of all trauma surgeons was the person waiting for the next challenge, with nerves of steel and the ability to command a room by their presence. My infatuation was more about the perception of the work, the highs, and the glory.Surgery is audacious. It’s an audacity that is pronounced in trauma surgery. It’s a confidence in our training, our knowledge base, practiced maneuvers and skills that says we will save your life. But once you’ve done the work, and you realize that traumatic injuries can often be unforgiving, there lives a humility in every trauma surgeon that acknowledges that we cannot do it all.One Saturday morning, while on-call, a page was sent through our hospital overhead system of an incoming trauma code activation 10 mins from the hospital. The trauma surgery team assembled, and hastily made our way down to the trauma bays. There, we received … ER -