Dr Martin discusses the limited surgical access in rural North Iowa

I decided to go into medicine when I was very young. I actually made the decision when I was nine years old, and I never changed my mind and always pursued that. I always liked doing things with my hands. I’ve always been a very hands-on person. I like to fix things. I have interest in metalworking. I have interest in carpentry. I have interest in auto mechanics. Right now, I’m an acute care surgeon, which means I take care of the things that are urgent or emergent. And our organization and our group, we cover up to 16 counties in Northern Iowa. A lot of these places in rural communities either don’t have a surgeon or they have limited access to surgeons. So something that comes in through their emergency department that would require general surgical skills, then they would call me, and then I would take care of them and they would transfer up here and we would take care of them here at our facilities. 

We see a wide variety of things, appendicitis, inflamed gallbladders, hernias that are caught, holes in things that shouldn’t have holes in them, bleeding and trauma, we take care of traumas as well. So we see a wide variety of things that need emergency general surgery coverage. I think that what I do as a surgeon is oftentimes high risk, it’s stressful, the stakes are high. And I think the more grounded you are and the more humble you are and the more down to earth you are, the better you can be as a surgeon. That’s just my personal opinion. That’s how I try to be. For me, it’s given my life a purpose.