03/15/2026
“The people who say ‘don’t make your passion your work’ have probably never carried the responsibility of someone else’s outcome.”
I hear this advice often.
The idea is simple:
If you turn your passion into your work, the pressure, the hours, and the responsibility will eventually drain the joy out of it.
Maybe that’s true in some professions.
But in medicine… I’m not sure the opposite works either.
Because when you step into the operating room, the responsibility is real.
And the moment the incision starts, the rest of the world disappears.
Someone trusted you with their health.
Their mobility.
Sometimes their ability to return to the life they love.
There are no “off days” when someone’s outcome is in your hands.
And every surgeon knows this quiet truth…
You remember far more of your patients than they will ever remember of you.
That kind of responsibility is heavy.
And without passion for the work, it would be impossible to carry.
But passion alone isn’t enough.
It has to be anchored in purpose.
Purpose to show up for patients when they are at their most vulnerable.
Purpose to push for safer systems, better technology, and better access to care.
Purpose to build something bigger than yourself—like what we’re working toward with the Chillicothe Project—so communities in Southern Ohio can receive world-class care close to home.
Because the truth is…
Surgeons may leave the operating room, but the responsibility for their patients never really leaves them.
And that responsibility is not a burden.
It’s a privilege.
A privilege we should never take lightly.
For me, that mission has always been simple:
Patients First. Always.
