Surgery Secrets with Dr. Simon Turner

Introduction & Quickfire Questions

[00:00] Hello and welcome to surgery secrets where we go behind the scenes to uncover secrets about surgery. You won't hear in the classroom. My name is Isabel Lusier and today we are sitting down with Dr. Simon Turner. So let's get started.

[00:20] We'll get started with some quick fire short answer questions, and we'll start with some easy ones. So can you tell us your name. I'm Simon Turner. And what is your occupation. I'm a thoracic surgeon at the University of Alberta at the Royal Alex hospital. And what does your job entail.

[00:40] surgery which involves anything inside the chest outside of the heart and aorta pretty much. So predominantly lung cancer but any kind of malignant or benign disease in the chest. What's your favorite color? Blue. What's your favorite food? Pizza.

[01:00] You're a favorite superhero. I'll say Nightcrawler. You're a favorite musical artist. Bob Dylan. You're a favorite movie. Oh that's a tough one. Pulp Fiction. You're a favorite organ of the body. The Lux.

[01:20] The last book you read? The last book I read, I just finished it and I don't remember the title. That is all good. Sorry. All good, we'll move on. And can you recommend me a TV show? Bojack Horseman, underrated, underrated.

Career Influence & Early Inspiration

[01:40] Very good answer. Alright, so you passed the quick fire round, so we'll move on to kind of our nitty gritty questions. So can you tell us your biggest influence career wise? I guess that's hard to say. My dad was a doctor, so probably the biggest reason I

[02:00] thought to go into medicine was because I saw my dad doing it and he was a great role model for me, really cared about helping people. That was always his number one driver. So I think that really made the profession of medicine seem like an attractive one and one that was worthwhile. I would say

[02:20] In first year med school, I met a thoracic surgeon named Zian Balgy, who is now actually one of my partners. He came to anatomy lab and talked about the different organs of the chest and how you would operate on them. I got to hang out with him for a few days and really just opened my eyes to sort of surgery.

[02:40] I hadn't been thinking about surgery before then and thoracic surgery in general. I think those are two people, two of a lot of different mentors and role models that I've had. So I can only imagine how hectic and busy school would have been for a surgical student. Do you have

Memorable Moments During Medical Training

[03:00] Have a memorable moment in your training? I think there's a lot of them. I think as a surgical resident or intern, you get to do a lot of things that just by being in the right place at the right time, you can save somebody's life.

[03:20] Or change the outcome of some of somebody's course in the hospital. I remember there was a guy who got shot in the chest and was bleeding out quite a bit from this some clavian artery and all I had to do was just put a finger on it and it stopped and it wasn't anything particularly

[03:40] fancy or noteworthy, but nobody else was doing this. And so I did that and that stopped the bleeding and then sort of rode the stretcher to the operating room and somebody else came and did all the fancy surgery. I didn't know what I was doing by that point, but that was a pretty cool feeling. Can you tell us about a

Recent Memorable Cases in Surgery

[04:00] Do you have any questions about the recent memorable moment at work? I would say recently the things that stand out are the difficult cases. People that you take to the operating room and you can't get all the cancer out and you have to stop.

[04:20] cancer spread too far by the time you've met them. I think sometimes as students and residents we don't really take on the weight of that, which I think is good. Trainees really shouldn't have to shoulder that responsibility, but it's something that I think you need to be aware of. That's part of the job, especially when you're doing a lot of cancer

[04:40] which there's a lot of cancer surgery and thoracics. And your job obviously isn't an easy one. And it's hard for me to even comprehend what it's like for you in those moments. Is there anything that people don't understand about your job?

Understanding the Realities of Surgery

[05:00] I would say the biggest misconception is that it's some kind of heroic thing or it's some kind of thing that only certain people could do. I do think there's certain people who are more suited for it and there are definitely people who are better at it than others, but it's just regular people doing their job.

[05:20] sometimes people say things like that or I couldn't imagine what it would be like. And I know it's very hard to imagine, but at the end of the day it's just a bunch of normal men and women getting out of bed, going to work and doing their best. And when you think of it that way, I think it sort of takes some of the mystique and some of the

[05:40] impossibility out of it for students, I think, maybe looking at surgery, it sort of seems so daunting, but at the end of the day, it's just normal people. They do. So what would you say is the absolute best part of your job? I'd say the best part of my job is just that I

[06:00] I really enjoy it start to finish, you know, meeting people, getting to share their stories and find out what's bothering them, find out a way to fix them and then just the satisfaction of knowing that you fixed a problem with your own two hands in your brain is just incredibly satisfying.

Best & Worst Aspects of Being a Surgeon

[06:20] fine and it's a lot of fun and it's really rewarding and I think the fact that it's fun sort of gets overlooked as well. So I guess on the other end of that what would you say is the worst part about your job? I think the worst part is when you

[06:40] can't fix somebody and when you've tried your best either you've done an operation as best you know how and then it doesn't work. You know the cancer comes back or something doesn't heal properly or where you find out that you can't operate on somebody that's really really hard to handle. We take a lot of personal responsibilities to

[07:00] surgeons because we get that gratitude or the instant feedback of thinking, oh, I picked somebody. And there's that gratification, I guess is what it might be. But with that also comes a lot of responsibility when things don't go well. So there's sort of two sides of the same coin.

Weirdest & Most Unexpected Cases

[07:20] So I guess kind of day to day looking at your job, is there any moments that stand out to you that were kind of like the weirdest or messiest surgery that you've ever done? I think maybe the weirdest thing that I ever had happen to me was like when I was a general surgery resident.

[07:40] had a trial patient and they brought a patient in and they found him sort of lying on the side of the road. They don't know how he got there and he was sort of sleeping on this object and they passed me a garbage bag that had the object that he was using as his pillow and it was his foot and nobody really knew

[08:00] how his foot came to be detached from him and why he was using us a pillow and he wouldn't tell us. And it was quite strange. It was just really really weird. That is really strange. Were you able to do anything with the foot or was that? No I think it was you know it was too late by that point.

Support System & Work-Life Balance

[08:20] ended up just having his amputation cleaned up. I don't think anybody ever got a story out of him as to what happened. Oh my goodness, that is so funny. So I can only imagine the stories you have and the stories you tell to your friends and family. Do you have a strong support system that kind of helps you along

[08:40] when the job gets a bit tougher? Yeah, I think that's really important. I think people that don't have that, I don't know how they get through the day-to-day life. My parents have always been really supportive of my training going through and especially in residency. It's a lot of

[09:00] sleepless nights and things like that and so you need to have help like that. My partner right now is incredibly supportive of my friends. A lot of my friends are in medicine so you know they sort of understand what it's like and it's nice to be able to open up a beer at the end of the day and sit down and talk with people who understand what you where you're going through.

[09:20] So when you were in school, did you ever imagine yourself living your current life? I guess yes and no. I think I had a bit of insight because of what my dad did. He did a very different type of medicine, so his lifestyle is a bit different.

Career Expectations vs. Reality

[09:40] I think I probably, once I knew I was going to be a surgeon, I probably thought my life would be harder than it is to be honest. I think I have a great life. I don't work a ton in the middle of the night. I have a reasonable lifestyle. I think from both good

[10:00] And bad things, it's hard to understand what your life is going to be like until you actually do it. It's hard to understand how great it's going to be, how great the job is, but also hard to understand what the commitment is, what the responsibility is like until you just go through it. So if you weren't doing your current job,

[10:20] What career would you most like to do? I think I'd probably do something in education. I'm really interested in teaching. I do a lot of teaching of med students and residents and I really enjoy that. I think if I hadn't gone into medicine, I probably would have gone into education. So now if you go back

[10:40] This is kind of our last question here. What advice would you give your younger self or someone considering your career? I guess my younger self, I would just say go for it because I think I've been really happy with the choices I've made in terms of where it's gotten me. I'm just thrilled with my job right now.

[11:00] my life and my career. I think looking back before I got into medical school, I think it's just mind-boggling to think of a pre-med student who just had no idea what they're in for. It's going to be decades of training potentially

Advice for Aspiring Surgeons & Final Thoughts

[11:20] And doing a job that you really have no concept of what it's like. So I think you have to really be sure that this is what you want to do. That being committed to taking care of patients is going to be something that you can do for the rest of your career. Otherwise, you know, if you don't really, really want it at the end of the day, it's going to be

[11:40] probably not the best thing to do is easier ways to make money than doing this. So you would still recommend being a surgeon to people if they really love it. Absolutely. I love it. I think it's absolutely the best thing I ever did. I always tell students who are unsure if they want to do surgery or

[12:00] something else. If you love surgery and that's the only thing you can do, then you have to do it because you'll be miserable otherwise and you'll wish you were doing it. If there are two things that you love equally and one of them is not surgery, you should probably do the other thing. Probably going to be easier and there'll be a lot of nights where you're up at three in the morning thinking, I could have been a pediatrician

[12:20] I'd be at home in bed right now. So I think if you're 50-50, do the other thing. But if you're like me, then surgery is the only thing you could do and you'll be miserable if you don't do it. So go for it. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Turner, for joining us today on Security Secrets. It was a pleasure to have you join our

[12:40] So thank you so much. Thank you very much. My pleasure. So there you have it. Join us next time for another inclusive look into surgery today. Follow us on LinkedIn for new surgery secrets episodes and check us out on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For more information on Surgery 101, head to our website.

[13:00] site, surgery101.org. Thanks again and we'll see you next time.