“I just love being in the operating room. I like working with my hands and I like the instant gratification of immediate results. It’s a fun profession.” – Carin Hagberg, MD
Carin Hagberg, MD is the Joseph C. Gabel Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at the the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. She is a respected researcher and educator, and author of Hagberg and Benumof’s Airway Management, 4th Edition.
Dr. Hagberg is certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology and is a diplomat of the American Board of Anesthesiology. She earned her medical degree at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Among her professional organization affiliations is her role as executive director of the Society of Airway Management.
I did not always want to be an anesthesiologist. I thought I was going to be an obstetrician, and before that a pediatrician. It wasn’t until I rotated through anesthesia in my third year of medical school and worked with a great resident that I decided to become an anesthesiologist. I just love being in the operating room. I like working with my hands and I like the instant gratification of immediate results. It’s a fun profession.
Airway management became my passion after an experience I had on my last call night as a senior resident. Both my attending and I were having difficulty with a patient. It turned out that the surgeon had to do a surgical cricothyrotomy. The patient survived, but ever since that time it’s been my passion to understand airway management and the different techniques for difficult cases so that if I was ever in that situation again I wouldn’t have to rely on another individual to get me out of trouble.
