Healer's Choice

Carlos Vega is entering his fourth year of medical school. He will soon be a doctor. What he really wants is to be a hero. He begins the year convinced that the high-tech career of a trauma surgeon is the best way to make this happen. Within months, his feelings and his future are influenced by those who teach him, those he treats and those he loves. What will he choose?As Carlos Vega begins his last year of medical school, his ambition is no less than to confront and even defeat Death itself. He knows no better way to do this than to become a trauma surgeon. He dreams of leading a team of experts with the latest tools and technology to save the lives and restore the bodies of victims of accidents and violence. In short, he longs to be a hero. But what does it mean to be heroic? His grandmother’s definition is as logical as it is romantic: “A hero is someone who makes a sacrifice or takes a risk to do something for someone else with no thought of personal reward. The only gain involved is the deed itself and that is done for love and love alone. Love for a person, for an ideal, for a country...” Surely the career path of a trauma surgeon could fit this definition, but are there others? And before he can apply to a prestigious surgical training program, he must first complete a required medical school rotation with an aging small-town doctor who has a very different vision of healing. He will face challenges that aren’t described in his medical textbooks and aren’t always encountered in a big-city hospital. He will see how the demands of life as a budding doctor could cause relationships to flourish or flounder. Could these experiences alter the plans that Carlos has so carefully mapped out? They will certainly affect the way he views the practice of medicine, success and even love itself.