Cleveland Clinic Personal Statement

John Brockett stepped foot in the New Haven Colony in 1638 as one of its chief founders and civil engineers. He was appointed the first surgeon for the colonies’ soldiers, and served in King Philip’s War under this role. His son, my 8th great-grandfather, would receive medical training at Oxford and return to America as the first resident physician in the New Haven Colony. At this time, ailments of the chest were treated with poultices and prayer. Little could my ancestors imagine that the heart and lungs could be put on bypass, that aortic valves would be threaded through the arterial system on a catheter, or that lung resections could be completed through three small incisions in the chest.

Fast-forwarding to the year 1999, I sat in
my 7th grade biology class with wonderment at the heart and lungs of a dissected frog. Concurrently, there was an article in the newspaper submitted by my local hospital about CABG vs. stenting and recent advancements in cardiothoracic surgery. I devoted a substantial amount of time learning more about the profession, and came to the conclusion that I would love to operate on these complicated and dynamic structures of the human body. Consequently, as a young teenager, I chose the career which I would pursue with unbridled persistence and determination.

My passion was reinforced by volunteering over 600 hours at my local community hospital during high school and in the cardiac unit at the Cleveland Clinic as a college student.
Much of my extracurricular time in medical school was spent in a canine lab researching a novel external ventricular assist device, a process which undoubtedly fuels my desire to develop groundbreaking methods in the field of cardiothoracic surgery. Residency allowed me to become technically proficient, while exposing me to a tremendous amount of vascular and cardiothoracic procedures, including endovascular
approaches.

My desire for perfection and love of minutia is impeccably demonstrated in my astrophotography hobby. Due to Earth’s rotation, cameras and telescopes must be mounted on complex equatorial mounts, so blurring of stars does not occur. With open shutter times approaching thirty minutes, even a slight interruption or miscalibration of the gears or programs controlling the equipment can lead to an unacceptable image. Every component must be double and triple checked, and each image must be impeccably scrutinized before stacking it into the final result. I carry the traits I have learned from this exciting and rewarding hobby every day as a resident, and I will continue to rely on them during my cardiothoracic fellowship and subsequent profession.

In fellowship I am looking for the foundation on which my career will flourish.
I hope to be a technically masterful, confident, and safe surgeon, and my fellowship training should be able to provide an environment whereby I can achieve these goals. I look forward to obtaining mentors, learning innovative techniques, and improving my understanding on a myriad of cardiothoracic conditions. I envision my future practice consisting of mostly cardiac cases with the ability to also perform thoracic and endovascular procedures, and I desire to be performing clinical research throughout my career. Ultimately, I hope that my 8th great-grandchildren can look back with wonder and pride as to the accomplishments I made in the 21st century in the field of cardiothoracic surgery, just as I l reflect on my pioneering ancestors during the establishment of
America.