Westmont Magazine Pursuing His Passion For Orthopedic Surgery
By Sharon Savely Odegaard ’72
As a second-year resident in orthopedic surgery at the UC San Diego Medical Center, TYLER PARAS ’16 focuses on caring for his patients and developing his skills.
“Orthopedics is the best field,” he says. “I could stay in the operating room forever and not get tired. A surgery eight hours long flies by because it’s so cool.
“Joint replacements are awesome. People who can’t walk come in, and a week after surgery, they’re walking pain-free.”
Tyler earned his Westmont degree in cellular and molecular biology. He scored in the 99th percentile when he took the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He’s pleased with his choice of specialty and grateful to be at UC San Diego, his first choice for his residency.
He says Westmont prepared him to be a successful surgeon. “About half of my honors chemistry classmates went on to medical school. That’s insane.” He attributes this success rate to small classes, study groups and one-on-one time with professors. At larger schools, undergraduates typically work with graduate students, but Tyler conducted research with his professors. That mentoring proved invaluable.
Dealing with learning disabilities challenges Tyler, but he doesn’t dwell on them. With diagnoses of dyslexia, dysgraphia and auditory processing disorder, he may work harder than others, but that’s fine with him. He takes extra care to avoid mistakes. “I can get things backwards, so if a patient has a left ankle fracture, I’m careful to note it’s the left and not the right ankle,” he says.
Tyler looks at orthopedics — and life — in three parts: innate talent, how hard you work and techniques. “You can’t change your IQ, and you can only work so hard with just 24 hours in a day. So I focus on the third area: techniques. You can improve techniques forever. You can always find ways to become more efficient.”
Tyler thrives on the variety of patients he treats. “Someone can come in with a femur fracture and be in a ton of pain. Then we can take them to surgery and have them walking the same day. It’s so rewarding.” He talks about seeing 37 patients in a day and scrubbing in for eight surgeries the next day. He loves developing the skill sets required in orthopedics, from the brute strength needed for realigning a patient’s bones to the finesse of microsurgical nerve repairs.
Besides working with patients, Tyler helps others who are training in orthopedics. He writes for Orthobullets, the go-to resource for aspiring orthopedists. He contributes to the question bank, writes up cases, and designs flash cards.
Patient care remains his first priority. “Today I took a seven-pound tumor out of someone’s leg,” he says. “It’s gratifying when you walk through a terrible situation with a patient and give them a great outcome. The goal is to find something you’re good at, that you like, and that you’re grateful you get to do.”