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JIM Wedesdy, eptmbe- 1, 211 / Te Sateen
I Wednesday, eptember 14, 011 / heStteen
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mer Major League Baseball pitcher
from Flint who played for the Uni-
versity before moving on to the
Angels, White Sox and Yankees.
Abbott was born without a right
hand.
"She is truly the Jim Abbott of
neurosurgery - a.Michigan icon,
seemingly unaware of her dis-
ability and a living inspiration to
countless young people and her
colleagues as well," Thompson
said. "Her achievements transcend
neurosurgery, and help to redefine
understanding of the word 'handi-
capped."'
Muraszko says her job always
keeps her on her toes, but the kids
she operates on keep her going.
Like them, she understands what
it's like to live with a disability.
"When I look at kids in those
teen years - that 13 to 18 year time-
frame when everybody's awkward
and everybody's uncomfortable,
and some of these kids get very sad
and very depressed of the thought
that they are different - and what
I want to say to them is just, 'Hold
on. Hold on until you get to about
18 or 19 and everybody around you
gets more mature, and you're going
to find out that everybody's differ-
ent,' " she said.
And it's not just teens on her
operating table. Muraszko has had
to cut into newborns and prema-
ture babies shy of 24 weeks old. She
explained it's like operating on a
fetus.
"It's still not someone who has
fully matured to the point of being
a full term baby," she explained.
Over the course of a year, she
works with nearly 400 patients.
Even after operating on thousands
of children, Muraszko says she
feels privileged that parents trust
her based solely on her reputation
and knowledge.
"I walk into a room, and by vir-
tue of my title and the white coat
that I'm wearing, a parent who's
never met me before turns over the
most precious thing that they have
in their lives - their child - to my
care," she said.
In 2009, Muraszko performed
brain surgery on Ryan Smith, a
sophomore at Jackson Community
College who had Chiari malforma-
tion - a neurological disorder that
can cause migraines, anxiety and
numbness. Before the operation,
Smith had throbbing headaches
and often kept to himself.
Afterward, the headaches disap-
peared. Smith's mother, Catherine,
described in a May 2011 Michi-
gan Daily article how the surgery
transformed her son and made him
more social.
"It was like he was re-birthed at
17 and became a completely differ-
ent person," she said in the article.
She later added, "I give Dr..
Muraszko all the credit for giving
me my kid back."
Like with many professions, it's
easy to get tired and frustrated,
but Muraszko tries not to let that
show when talking to parents who
are deeply concerned about losing
their child.
"I recognize that particularly for
that patient and that family, this
interaction is paramount. And you
may be the 15th or 20th patient for
me that day, but to that family and
to that individual, you're the only
one," she said.
The stress and pressure slips
away whenever Muraszko receives
a card from patients who are now
graduating high school or are get-
ting married and having their own
kids.
"You find out that it really does
matter that you're there. ... Some-
times you can influence a life, even
just by a conversation that you
have," she said.
By saving other parents' chil-
dren, Muraszko has sacrificed time
with her own kids. Her 7-year-old
twins are often in bed when she
comes home and still sleeping
when she leaves at 5:30 a.m. from
her home in Ann Arbor. Sometimes
she won't see them for a few days
at a time.
Muraszko's husband, Scott Van
Sweringen, said they're used to
their mother being gone.
"One time I said 'Mommy's
home,' and the kids ran to the tele-
phone instead of the garage door,"
he recalled.
Muraszko admits her regular
absence bothers her.
"I'm here. It's not like I'm away,
it's not like I'm on a trip," she said.
However, like all physicians,
she's made a "sacred obligation" to
her patients, which means she may
not arrive home in time to help the
twins study for their spelling tests
every Wednesday.
The secret to having a successful
marriage as a neurosurgeon is not
to marry another neurosurgeon,
Muraszko jokes.
"If you need someone to com-
plete you, a neurosurgeon may not
be the best person to be involved
with," Muraszko said with a laugh.
"Just because we do have extreme-
ly demanding jobs."
Scott, an architect, also doesn't
put his wife on a pedestal.
"He keeps me grounded,"
Muraszko explains. "He says,
'Sweetie, just because you raise
your hand in the operating room
and instruments fall intoit, doesn't
mean that when you get out of the
operating room, that that's going to
happen."
"The reason why I love him is he
doesn't worship me."
Odette Althea Harris, president-
elect of a group called Women in
Neurosurgery, says neurosurgery is
"a challenging field for anyone," but
women neurosurgeons may find it
even harder if they're also pregnant
or trying to raise a family.
"In a profession that is so
demanding of your time, of your
energy and takes so many years
to train, those issues become aug-
mented," said Harris, an associate
professor of neurosurgery at Stan-
ford University.
Besides balancing family and
work, women neurosurgeons
face gender inequalities such as a
lower promotion rate compared
to men and a lack of female men-
tors. In 2008, Muraszko was part
of a group of surgeons who wrote
a paper on the recruitment and
retention of women in neurosur-
gery.
Despite more women than men
applying to medical school each
year since 1995, the report found
that the number of women neuro-
surgeons remains drastically low.
Each year from 1998 to 2008,
only 10 percent of neurosurgery
residents were women. As of the
late 1990s, 30 percent of neuro-
surgical residency programs had
never graduated a woman resi-
dent, according to the report.
Even the American Academy
of Neurological Surgeons - with
more than 8,000 members world-
wide - had not admitted a woman
surgeon until Muraszko joined in
2007.
However, Harris says more
women have become neurosur-
geons in the last few years and
are mentoring female medical stu-
dents to help direct, their careers.
Muraszko is one of them - acting
as a role model for Harris.
"I think she is a pioneer and a
champion. I don't have enough
good things to say about her,"
Harris said. "Her job is probably
one of the most difficult ever, and
I have nothing but praise for how
she conducts herself profession-
ally."
As more women enter a neu-
rosurgery career, Muraszko says
she knows she will not be the last
woman to head a neurosurgery
department.
"In some ways, I'm saddened
a little bit that seven years into
it, I'm still the only woman," she
said. "But I think that it's going
to change, and it will change, as
we see more women rising in the
ranks."