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Part 3: The Surgeon
Dr. Casy Sharma defined herself by the title affixed to her door: Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery. She had rigorous standards caused by her extreme perfectionism, which she believed had propelled her to the top of her highly competitive field. For Casy, even minor deviations from her expectations felt like threats to her identity, causing her emotions to feel like overwhelming floods when triggered. This characteristic, although not known to others before, would soon become clear to her fellow doctors and lead to one of the most regrettable decisions of Dr. Sharma’s life.
Midway through a high-stakes transplant, a doctor reported a small calibration error in the heart-lung machine – which takes over the role of the patient’s heart and lungs during surgery. Although a minor and rectifiable inconvenience, this error triggered an immediate rush of irritation in Dr. Sharma. Her internal emotional control was essentially broken. Consequently, the annoyance quickly turned into destructive rage.
How“ could you miss that?” Dr. Sharma’s voice – usually calm and controlled – became a sharp verbal outburst, slicing through the silence and stealing every team member’s attention.
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In an impulsive reaction, she grabbed the sterile monitor drape and violently pulled it off, causing the monitor to fall to the ground and shut down.
The other surgeons immediately froze in shock. Dr. Sharma soon realized the reality of the situation: her disproportionate reaction not only compromised the sterility of the operation area but also aborted a life saving clinical procedure. The procedure was cancelled, and Dr. Sharma observed the looks of sheer disappointment plastered across her peers’ faces.
Suspended from her career indefinitely, Dr. Sharma was forced to confront her internal disorder – the root cause of her outburst and major career sabotage. She could not let this happen again.
She began by establishing a strict schedule, prioritizing the seven to nine hours of adequate sleep essential for mental function. Every afternoon, she engaged in intense physical exercise, cycling until physical exhaustion superseded her emotional burden, using this technique to reduce chronic emotional arousal. When shame or anxiety threatened to resurface, she engaged in a distracting activity. Finally, she meticulously tracked her volatile reactions in a notebook, working slowly to reconstruct the mental volume control she desperately needed. As a result, she was able to return to her career after a probationary period mandated by the hospital CEO. Her commitment to consistent personal growth had paid off, transforming her from a hostage to her emotions into the architect of her own resilience.