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Founder's Story
Breaking the Scalpel Ceiling: Dr. Paula Ferrada’s Trailblazing Journey in Trauma Surgery | Ep. 189
00:15:40
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- [00:00]
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American Express Representative
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- [01:49]
Host of Founders Story
Hey everyone, welcome back to Founders Story. Today we have a very special guest and I've really been interested to learn more about what is it like to be a trauma surgeon. So we wanted to get an Incredible inspirational person. Dr. Paula Ferrata. You are a trauma surgeon. You are born in Colombia and I know you're going to share your whole story and you are now one of the few doing what you do with the background that you have and your and it's I mean a trauma surgeon has to be one of the most complex jobs in in the world. I mean I can't wait to dive in. So let's begin with your story. How did you and why did you want to become a surgeon?
- [02:37]
Dr. Paula Farada
Dan, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me. I as you as you said I was born in Colombia, South America and I had the privilege of having a mom, that nurse and a dad that was a surgeon. And when I'm Going to be honest and vulnerable. When they didn't have health, when they didn't have child care, they just brought me to work. So I saw babies being delivered when I was 11 years old. I would started like watching my dad in the operating room when I was 12 years old. And it was more like surgery picked me than the other way around. Now how I made it to the United States is like doing training in Colombia. We will go straight from high school to medical school and doing training. There was a gap. So I came to the United States, to Emory, Grady Memorial to do a rotation. And I was just amazed in the care that people get in the United States, in the facts that we had blood available, that we have helicopters available, that we have CT scans available, things that in Latin America, especially in the university hospital, were not. So I always wanted to train in the United States so I can so somehow find a way to not only give back to Colombia and to the world, but I think that get the best of both worlds so we can help the patient in need.
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Kinsta Representative
That's amazing.
- [03:52]
Host of Founders Story
So you're in the U.S. you starting to be a surgeon. How was that experience? And I know we were talking earlier, there's very few women who are in that role. Were there any challenges breaking down these barriers and really proving that you are just as great as anyone else as a surgeon?
- [04:13]
Dr. Paula Farada
I think I'm super happy that I came to the United States. I'm very proud of everything that we have done. I always, I came with the intention of going back, but, you know, life happens and you know, I got married and I have, I have children, like, so I never really went back physically. But there's a lot of things that we do in collaboration with Latin American, with the world, especially in the world of trauma, that I have the privilege of being part of. If you talk about proving yourself, I think I'm still proving myself every day in the United States. Latino physicians represent only 6.3% of the total physician pool. And Latina female physicians are less than 2.4% of all United States physicians. And that's all physicians, not only surgeons. Now, in terms of advancing in leadership roles, full professors of surgery, that it's is who I am is only 21% surgery chairs, which is the privilege that I have the privilege of serving in all healthcare by being the chair of surgery, only 14% are women. From those three are Latina and one me is a foreign graduate. So I consider this an honor that I don't take for granted the path of coming to the United States. I came to Miami. I did a lot of work. I did research. Then I was promised a spot that I didn't get, but it ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me. You know, my mom used to say, always things happen for a reason, and you at the time don't believe it. But it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me because I had the opportunity to go to Boston and train at one of the Harvard programs and be the first Colombian woman that graduated from Harvard program from surgery. And that was a great experience. I didn't do it with the intention of being the first at anything, but I think my presence at those institutions actually help other Latino surgeons and other women surgeons to create a path also of success that now I'm seeing. I'm seeing people that I was mentoring at the time, when I was even arrested, that now are doing very successful things within the Harvard system. Then after that, I went to Pittsburgh and I did an extra year fellowship. Then I went to Shock Trauma, Maryland, which is the Mecca of trauma in the United States, and did a year of acute care surgery. Then I was in a hospital in Virginia for 11 years at Virginia Commonwealth University, where I did several things. I started working in my leadership skills and research, became a full professor, and I have been in inova Health since 2021, where I came here to director Trauma system. We have a level one trauma center in Fairfax. We have a level three that will be a level two in Loudon, and we have another hospital that we're thinking about bringing it to a level three trauma. We serve a population of 3.2 million people here in Northern Virginia. And we're just like. That's the leadership part that help us. Help us help people way above and beyond, one patient at a time. However, I feel like our life is a life of service, and I feel that it's a privilege for us to take care of those patients, any type of patient that is in a trauma situation or requires emergency surgery or requires surgical critical care. For us, it's a privilege to do that in the one on one relationship or in the broader scale improving the systems of trauma in the United States and in the world.
- [07:31]
Host of Founders Story
I mean, that's amazing. Somebody once told me, if you see it, you can be it. So I hope that people see this and say, oh, I want to be just like Dr. Paula Farada and I'm going to become a surgeon as well. Amazing story. Incredible. I'm very curious because I could personally never do that role. Like, I. I don't handle fear. And. And, you know, I'm sure you have to act so fast. I'm not really good at that. And I'd be the worst surgeon. But how is that feeling when.
- [08:01]
Kinsta Representative
When you have the.
- [08:02]
Host of Founders Story
I mean, this is like a life or death situation, like you said. These are level one, two, three trauma centers. You have something going on that is. Is so dire and you can't make a mistake. How do you handle that feeling?
- [08:16]
Dr. Paula Farada
Well, I love that feeling. I think that there's the reason why I say trauma surgeon, pick me. I think that there is a certain personality that you have to be able to thrive in chaos. And instead of seeing chaos, when you have a lot of patience and a lot and fast space and things are decisions that you have to take with very little information and be okay with that and grow. Right. Sometimes there's. You don't want to make mistakes. Nobody shows up to make mistakes. I think that the care of the trauma patient is not depending on one person. It's a team. You have your team of nurses. You have a team of emergency medicine physicians. You have the trauma circle. You have human intensivists, nurses, respiratory therapists, residents, fellows. They're all part of the team. I think that we have a lot of. We have a lot of things in place that prevents us from doing mistakes. And when there's a mistake, it gets caught by somebody in the team. So we can all serve the patient better. And we also have, especially in the United States, systems where we can go back and look at things that happen for patients. So you honor those patients by not letting it happen again. I think that. How do you deal with it? I think it's stressful, but it's also fun. I don't think burnout happen in the intensity or the time that we. That it takes for us to do the things that we do. I think burnout for physicians happen when you lose the autonomy of taking the decisions that you think are best for your patients. So I think autonomy and I think focusing in gratitude. It sounds maybe silly, but focus on the hormones that make you happy. Make sure you see the sun shine every day. That's serotonin. Make sure that you feel accomplished as dopamine. Make sure you lose connection with your own purpose, your purpose really clear. And don't lose that connection. And don't lose connections with patients, because this. That is through those connections where we feel that our purpose as healers is accomplished.
- [10:14]
Host of Founders Story
Thank you for sharing that. And I could see where it's really a team effort. So when it comes to leadership, what do you find works well for you or what do you do to really create this unified team effort?
- [10:27]
Dr. Paula Farada
I think that is very important, that even if the surgeon is the captain of the ship. The captain. That the captain of the ship feels that he or she is able to share vulnerability with your team. It's okay to say that you're tired, it's okay to ask for help. Not only okay, it's necessary for you to be able to show vulnerability to your team. And when we go through these difficult situations, let's say you have a mass casualty or a patient that is really sick. Those moments of acute stress actually bring people together. So capitalize on those times to create those relationships. I truly believe that the safest operating room or the safest trauma bay in the world is where everybody feels that they can speak their mind without fear of retaliation. Where you can be like, yeah, she or he's the surgeon. But I can say, hey, can you explain this to me? Why are you doing things differently? Why are you deviating from protocol? And I think that the only way to achieve that is creating relationships of true trust, knowing that we all are there with the sole purpose of making a patient better. We all want the same thing. Nobody showed up in the team to do the wrong thing. And we start by not assuming evil, always assuming good intent, having a culture of trust and psychological safety, be able to speak up to each other without fear of retaliation, and have the ability of showing vulnerability to each other.
- [11:51]
Host of Founders Story
I know You've published over 130 peer reviewed articles, which is incredible. What makes you so passionate for the research side?
- [12:02]
Dr. Paula Farada
Because I think through research and education, we make patients better. I think that the most dangerous phrase in science and in surgery, but in science overall is we are doing it because we have always done it that way. I think you have to have the opportunity of questioning the status quo. And if the status quo is not good enough, create a new status quo quote. And the only way you do it is through investigation. I think that educating our new generation ensures that our patients get the best care, right? Because these people, their residents, our residents, our fellows, our students, are going to be the people that are going to take care of me. So in our family. So we want them to be the best possible, and that's why education is so important. And then research is what allows us to change the status quo. Number one, prove the status quo if it doesn't need changing, but if there's an impact that we can do that is in a broader scale. Not only For Northern Virginia, population of one on one with the patient. But nationwide or global wise, I think that it's through research that we are able to answer those questions.
- [13:05]
Kinsta Representative
Amazing.
- [13:06]
Host of Founders Story
I mean, when you come back in a year, you might be at 250, 300 peer reviewed articles. I can tell you're very passionate about that. And I mean, it sounds like that could cement your legacy, you know, in the future. All of this research and, and changing the status quo and people are going to be learning from what you're doing and they're going to be using that and, and you're going to be, you know, one of the best in your field, which is incredible in terms of, I think we all want to be known for something. So when it comes to the future for you, what does the future look like for you? What are you hopeful for doing in the future?
- [13:46]
Dr. Paula Farada
So that's a great question. So I think about this, what do I want my legacy to be and what I want to be known for? And it's not the papers that I have written or the positions that I have held. I want to be known for somebody that help other people achieve their goals and their dreams. I want to be known by somebody that challenged the paradigms of what people think a surgeon needs to be like. Instead of he's an authoritarian being that has a God complex that we were talking, talking about before we started. Be somebody that wants to empower people, that wants to help people, that, where compassion and kindness is not in a strategy but a way of being and, and where surgery is a field that we can level the plane a little bit and, and, and have people, you know, accomplish their goals and, and go up in leadership and show their worth because of their hard work, not because of the external things like ethnicity or your ethnicity or your gender or you know, the pedigree of the place where you train, but actually your true worth and your service for patients. Because honestly, when we talk about health care, this is who we are. We are a, we are a place for service to other people, to, to one patient at a time and to our community as a whole.
- [15:01]
Host of Founders Story
Have you ever had any students that maybe you are mentoring or people that you mentored, maybe other surgeons, and then later on they talk to you about the impact that you made and if so, how was that feeling?
- [15:15]
Dr. Paula Farada
Makes my day, my week, my month, my year. When I hear somebody saying like, thank you for giving me an opportunity, thank you for giving me a chance, thank you for listening, thank you for your advice and that resulted in somebody doing something good for themselves, their family, their patients, or the world. That's that's a great feeling. I think that that's a fantastic feeling. It's saving somebody's life or, or giving a chance to a patient, to returning a patient to their family hole. That's another great feeling. I think that that's why I said before he's it's not through like I.
- [15:49]
Kinsta Representative
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- [19:31]
Dr. Paula Farada
Long hours that or intensity that we get that physicians get burned up. We get burned out when we don't have the capacity of taking the decisions that we know we need to take for the patients that we care for.
- [19:43]
Host of Founders Story
Well, I know a few years ago everyone was saying people in the medical field are the heroes, but I don't feel like that should have ever stopped. And I think people in the medical field are always the heroes. So thank you for all that you're doing. Not only are you saving lives, but you're helping other people and they can save lives. I mean it's really such an extreme impact when you look at how many people could then take that and then they take that and then they take that. So I can tell that you are all about impact. Not only from your patients and everyone that you are seeing, but then also the young surgeons or up and coming surgeons and what they're learning. If people want to get in touch with you, they want to find out more information. Maybe they're inspired to be a surgeon as well and they need some some advice. How can they do so I can share with you?
- [20:33]
Dr. Paula Farada
They can contact me through LinkedIn or or social media. I mean Twitter and Instagram, but also my email. I think if you Google my name, you find my email. My door is always open for anything that anybody needs. Since it is my pleasure and my privilege to be able to be part of anybody's journey's journey.
- [20:53]
Host of Founders Story
Well, Dr. Paula Farotta, thank you so much for all you do and thank you for joining us today on Founders Story.
- [21:00]
Dr. Paula Farada
Thanks. Ivanya, what is Dax?
- [21:08]
Kinsta Representative
Are you tracking all our cars on Carvana value Tracker on all our devices? Yes, Kristen, yes I am.
- [21:14]
American Express Representative
Well, I've been looking for my phone.
- [21:15]
Kinsta Representative
For In Dax's domain we see all.
- [21:18]
Host of Founders Story
So we always know what our cars are worth.
- [21:20]
Dr. Paula Farada
All of them?
- [21:21]
Kinsta Representative
All of them.
- [21:22]
Host of Founders Story
Value surge trucks up 3.9%.
- [21:25]
American Express Representative
That's a great offer.
- [21:26]
Kinsta Representative
I know. Sell.
- [21:28]
American Express Representative
Sell.
- [21:30]
Kinsta Representative
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- [21:35]
American Express Representative
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