American Head & Neck Society

Advancing Education, Research, and Quality of Care for the Head and Neck oncology patient.

American Head & Neck Society | AHNS


The mission of the AHNS is to advance Education, Research, and Quality of Care for the head and neck oncology patient.

  • About
    • Mission Statement and Purpose
    • Divisions & Services of the Society
      • Education
        • Scientific Program/Resident Courses
        • Surgical Videos
        • Journal Club
        • Journals
        • Global Outreach
        • Awards
          • Margaret F. Butler Award
      • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Division
      • Patient Care
        • Cancer Survivorship
          • Patient Education on Post-Treatment Care
          • Interviews with Cancer Survivors
        • Cancer Prevention
          • SLIDE DECK: HPV-Related Oropharyngeal Cancer
        • Guidelines/Position Statements
        • Find-A-Physician
      • Research
        • Grant Information
        • Clinical Trial
        • Tissue Banks
      • Administrative Divison
        • Development Service Process for Evaluating Projects Requiring Funding
    • Leadership
    • History
      • Society Background
      • AHNS History Interviews
      • Past Presidents
      • In Memory
    • AHNS Newsletter
    • Professionalism & Ethics
    • AHNS Policies and Procedures (P&P) Manual
    • AHNS Foundation
    • AHNS Bylaws
    • AHNS Staff
    • AHNS News and Announcements
    • COVID-19 Bulletin Board
  • Heads Up!
  • Post a Job
  • Meetings
    • AHNS Virtual Education Series
      • TORS Webinar Series
    • AHNS Meetings Info
    • AHNS Call For Abstracts
    • AHNS Call For Late Breaking Abstracts
    • Exhibitor and Support Opportunities
    • Past Meetings
    • Related Meetings
  • For Patients
  • For Trainees
    • Accredited Fellowships
      • Fellowship Match
      • Directory of Fellowships
      • Fellowship Curriculum
      • Certificate of Completion Request
      • Fellowship Graduates
      • For Program Directors
      • For Current AHNS Fellows
    • AHNS Surgical Videos
    • Fellows’ Virtual Tumor Boards
    • Cutaneous Cancer
  • Sections
    • Endocrine Surgery
    • Skull Base Surgery Section
    • Reconstructive Head & Neck Surgery
    • Mucosal Malignancy Section
      • Mucosal Malignancy Section Patient Information
    • Salivary Gland
    • Cutaneous Cancer
  • Member Central
    • Join AHNS
    • Find-A-Physician
    • Mailing List Order
  • Log In
  • Donate

Published on June 5, 2019 by Bruce Campbell, MD FACS

The Day I Knew I Wanted to be a Head and Neck Surgeon

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. – Mark Twain

Head and Neck cancer surgeons know when “The Questions” are coming. A casual conversation eventually turns to “What do you do for a career?” The pleasant exchange is replaced with talk of disfigurement and life-threatening illness. The person’s brow furrows. “How can you deal with that day after day? Isn’t it depressing? Why didn’t you pick something happier for a career?”

These are legitimate questions. As a medical student many years ago, I enjoyed every rotation and wondered how I would ever narrow down my choices and pick a specialty. Eventually, I decided that I was most content in the operating room. Even when I knew I would become a surgeon, there were still dozens of trajectories which my career might have taken.

One day in 1980, as a 25-year-old senior medical student, I was in a departmental conference, listening to a visiting out-of-town cancer surgeon. He ran through his slide show, describing a procedure he had devised to restore voice for patients who had undergone removal of their voice boxes. It was a complex operation that involved the creation of tubes of lining tissues that shunted air from the trachea to the back of the throat that could then exit through the mouth, thus allowing the person to speak.

It was interesting, but at my level of training, I was confused by approach and the diagrams. I was years away from doing any type of surgery on my own. At some point during his talk, I probably checked my watch, wondering when the conference would be over.

Then, the visiting surgeon flipped the controls and adjusted the volume on a 16-mm movie projector. The light flickered as the film moved past the bulb. There, on the screen, was a man who had undergone a total removal of his voice box. The surgeon asked him a question and the patient responded by holding a vibrating device against his neck to create an artificial, machine-like sound that he shaped into words. He was understandable, but his voice sounded synthetic.

The next scene showed the same patient after he had undergone the voice-restoring procedure. This time, he answered questions by bringing his hand up to his neck and covering his stoma to redirect air from his lungs through the shunt and into his throat. He was able to talk! The sound was natural and fluent. I was enthralled by his ability to speak and by his big smile at the end of the movie. Once the presentation was complete, the senior surgeons asked technical questions about the operation and whether it might cause more problems than it solved. I, on the other hand, was amazed. All I could think was, “I want to do something like that!”

Although the procedure described by the visiting surgeon never caught on (there are much simpler techniques today), that movie steered me toward a career devoted to patients with head and neck cancer. I can trace the rest of my life to that day.  A few weeks later, I was humbled when a cancer patient’s family included me in their circle while making difficult end-of-life decisions. That sealed it.

I have loved my work even on the many days I when I have found it overwhelming. When someone asks me my story, I tell them about that lecture. I describe the movie and the man’s huge grin. Over the decades, I have been privileged to see similar grins on my own patients. It has, indeed, all been worthwhile.

A previous version of this essay appeared in Dr. Campbell’s blog, Reflections in a Head Mirror (www.froedtert.com/reflections)

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts

Bruce Campbell, MD FACS

Bruce H. Campbell, MD FACS is a head and neck surgeon at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). He completed his otolaryngology residency at MCW and his head and neck surgery fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. A previous version of this essay appeared in his blog, Reflections in a Head Mirror (www.froedtert.com/reflections). He is currently working on a book of essays.

Latest posts by Bruce Campbell, MD FACS (see all)

  • The Day I Knew I Wanted to be a Head and Neck Surgeon - June 5, 2019
Views: 0

Share:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Related

Subscribe to Heads Up!

Enter your email address to subscribe to Heads Up! and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 205 other subscribers

AHNS Meetings

WEBINAR CALENDAR

AHNS Call For Abstracts

News and Announcements

  • AHNS 2023 Meeting – Late Breaking Call For Abstracts – Final Day To Submit Abstracts March 22, 2023
  • ARS NASBS AHNS Sinonasal Cancer Collaborative – Sinonasal Malignancy Virtual Tumor Board March 20, 2023
  • AHNS 2023 Meeting – Late Breaking Call For Abstracts – 1 Week Left To Submit Abstracts March 16, 2023
  • Registration for the AHNS 2023 is now open! March 10, 2023
  • What’s New on the AHNS Website March 9, 2023

AHNS on Facebook

AHNS on Facebook

Contact Us

AHNS, 11300 W. Olympic Blvd, Suite 600
Los Angeles, CA 90064
ph: (310) 437-0559 / fx: (310) 437-0585
[email protected]

Search this website

Follow the AHNS

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent Heads Up! Posts

AHNS 2023 Meeting – Late Breaking Call For Abstracts – Final Day To Submit Abstracts

ARS NASBS AHNS Sinonasal Cancer Collaborative – Sinonasal Malignancy Virtual Tumor Board

AHNS 2023 Meeting – Late Breaking Call For Abstracts – 1 Week Left To Submit Abstracts

More News and Announcements

© 2002–2023 American Head and Neck Society · Privacy and Return Policy
· Managed by BSC Management, Inc