Last week, a younger colleague came up to me and said:
“A patient told me today, ‘Please do the surgery yourself. Don’t delegate it to someone else.’”
To most people, this may sound like a simple request. But to a surgeon, it represents something much deeper.
Not very long ago, patients would ask whether I would be performing their surgery while I gradually entrusted this colleague with increasing responsibility.
Now, a patient had placed that same confidence directly in the surgeon they had just met.
That brief conversation made me pause and reflect on the evolution of every surgeon’s career, including my own.
Every surgeon starts by looking up
I still remember my early days as a medical student. Walking into an operating theatre felt special. The discipline, teamwork, precision and quiet intensity were fascinating.
The surgical residents seemed larger than life. They appeared to know everything and moved with complete confidence.
Then, one day, I became one of them.
And I learned that becoming a surgeon is about much more than learning to operate.
Training begins with the fundamentals – understanding patients, interpreting investigations, coordinating care and following them through recovery. Then come countless hours of assisting, then doing smaller operations under guidance, followed by progressively more complex operations under supervision.
Technical skills develop gradually.
But alongside them comes something equally important: judgment.
Knowing when to operate is just as important as knowing how to operate.
The biggest transition is not technical – its personal.
Eventually comes independent practice.
For the first time, every decision is yours. Every complication feels personal. Every patient teaches you something.
Young surgeons also discover that patients look at you and wonder whether you are ready to be their surgeon. They cannot see the years of training behind them.
There is no way to demand their confidence.
You simply have to earn it.
It happens one patient at a time – through competence, honesty, compassion and, ultimately, good outcomes.
A surgical career is not built over months, its built over decades.
The milestones that don’t appear on a CV.
A surgeon’s career is marked by many milestones: the degrees, the fellowships, the publications, the first operation you assist, the first major procedure performed independently, the first difficult complication successfully navigated.
But some of the most meaningful milestones never appear on a CV or a logbook.
Sometimes they come in the form of a patient saying:
“Please do the surgery yourself.”
For a young surgeon, those words mean that somewhere along the journey, the patient has decided:
“I trust you”.
Watching the next generation grow.
Perhaps the most rewarding part of my own journey today is seeing younger colleagues evolving into outstanding surgeons in their own right.
As surgeons, we naturally measure our careers by the operations we perform and the patients we treat. As teachers, there is another measure: seeing those we trained become surgeons whom patients choose for themselves.
Surgery is not just about passing on techniques.
It is about passing on trust.
And eventually, you realise that the surgeons you trained are earning that trust for themselves.
The picture above is of me as a young surgeon with Dr Mitchell Posner at the University of Chicago Medicine – a major influence on how I approach mentoring young surgeons.
Srilakshmi Kamath says:
Whoa ! Fabulous article !👍. Through this I understand your beautiful personality as a responsible Doctor with fine human values of profefession with Dharma as your tool in all situations .
What is impressive is u r training your students to follow this noble quality of Dharma while fulfilling their dreams and ambitions .
You have passed in your duties . God Almighty must b mighty pleased having given you the chance of becoming a Doctor to Dr Suraj Manjunath who has understood the value of God’s gift and in return is showing his gratitude in that perfect way . Blissful joy is yours for life . 😋 you have attained “Moksha”
Blessing of the whole Universe to u 🙏🏻