A discussion of transplant surgeons, including history, education, benefits and needed skills for becoming a transplant surgeon.
Function
A transplant surgeon moves organs and tissue from one body to another body. This is done to replace an organ which may be failing or damaged. Donated organs can be taken from living or recently deceased donors. Deceased donors are people which have been declared brain-dead but are kept alive through the use of life support technologies until the donor organs can be harvested from the body.
History
Human transplants have a long history. History suggests that transplants were being performed as early as the fourth century BC. The first successful documented transplantation was of a human cornea by Eduard Zirm in Austria in 1905. French surgeon Alexis Carroll was one of the first pioneers of this field, and received the Nobel prize for Medicine in 1912. He was one of the first people to discover the issue of rejection, which is still a key consideration for all transplant surgeons.
With the rising success of transplants and the need for transplants becoming more common, transplant surgeons are in demand. This is a field that will only continue to grow as medical science improves the field of transplantation.
Time Frame
Education and training for becoming a transplant surgeon is not easy. It requires a minimum of four years of undergraduate study, four years of medical school, and anywhere from three to eight years of residency and internship depending on the specialty.
Doctors who wish to become transplant surgeons must do additional study in the area of transplant surgery. For example, if a person wants to become a kidney, liver or pancreas transplant surgeon, they can apply to the renowned Mayo Clinic, where they offer a three year transplant fellowship program. The first year focuses on laboratory research, while the additional two years focus on kidney, pancreas and liver transplantations. Extra time is allowed for the surgeon to work on the specialized areas within their chosen discipline.
A doctor must be a licensed physician to perform any type of surgery. To get this license, a person must have graduated from medical school, passed the license exam and have completed at least one and up to seven years of graduate residency. Transplant also pass a final examination to be in this specialized field.
Considerations
People who are considering becoming a transplant surgeon of any kind should be able to display the following personal qualities; enthusiasm and dedication, excellent manual dexterity, excellent grasp of biomechanical and biological concepts, ability to work both as part of a team and also as a team leader, be self-motivated, make decisions in an emergency, be able to withstand the pressures of education and a transplant practice.
Most of all, transplant surgeons must be willing to continue their studies throughout their career in order to keep up with advances in their field.
Benefits
Surgeons often work irregular hours. For those who wish to become a surgeon of any kind, getting accepted to medical school can be difficult as it is a highly competitive field. The education and training required to be a transplant surgeon are rigorous, but successful candidates can expect to earn an excellent salary.
A transplant surgeon can expect to have an average starting salary of about $245,000. For transplant surgeons that have been working in the field for at least 10 years in a metropolitan area, they can expect to make upwards of $303,000.
Transplant surgeons also experience a high degree of job satisfaction because of the opportunity to be on the cutting edge of research in this field as well as being able to save lives through transplantation.
Tags: transplant surgeon, transplant surgeons, becoming transplant, becoming transplant surgeon, medical school, surgeons must, four years