Answers follow your original questions....
What are the 3 pramary duties of a pedatric surgeon?
-->Pediatric surgeons care for all general surgical (generally no brains, long-bones, or heart) needs for patients from before birth, until around 18 years of age. This includes doing the operations, caring for children in the ICU, and usually, trauma.
Why did u decide to become a pedatric surgeon??
-->I found the surgical work to be very Zen: precise, deliberate, measured....
what education and training did u have ot complete to get were u are today?
--After high school, it was: 5 years of college (double major), 4 years of medical school, 7 years of residency training, and 2 more years of pediatric surgery fellowship training.
Could you please describe your typical day?
--See patients in the morning before cases; operate (cases start a 7:30; lots of minimally-invasive procedures); phone calls, paperwork, consults, troubleshooting, teaching, research all crammed in wherever they fit; other days may be in the clinic, evaluating new patients
how much of your day is spent taking care of or working with pateints?
--Some days, it is the whole day (and night! and the next day too! ); other days I write, or study.
What do you enjoy most about being a pedatric surgeon?
-->I like to see the babies have dramatic positive results from a well-done operation.
What couls you recommend to a high school student who is interested in your field??
-->Study hard. Pediatric surgery is a vey competitive field, within an already competitive field (general surgery). Meanwhile, make sure that, as you build your academic record, never do anything for show. That is, never engage in "resume building." Instead, do things that are real: take the weird summer job you really want; build robots because you like that; go ahead and join that band; pick the major in college for a subject that you love, not one that is good for pre-med. People who merely "play the game" and follow some kind of formula are unhappy, and do not make very good doctors (if they even get in).
Thank you for your time. I appericate this so much.
--Good luck!!
Thank you so much for your time and effort. This really helped me out. :)