HOF 6.8.25 - Flipbook - Page 47
The Baltimore Sun | Sunday, June 8, 2025 47
THOMAS M.
SCALEA
The R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at University of Maryland Medical Center treats over 6,500 of the most critically injured or ill patients in the state
each year. About 95% of them survive.
The surgeon at the center of this effort for more than 25 years, Dr. Thomas M. Scalea, has just turned 74 — and is still driven to pull 100-hour weeks caring for the
most dire patients.
The center’s physician in chief says he was “put on earth to do this” — but his career was serendipitous.
“I had no intention of doing medicine,” Scalea said of his plans when he set out from his hometown of Rochester, New York, for the University of Virginia. His
dream of playing quarterback or linebacker for the Cavaliers was dashed because of his size — about 50 pounds lighter than even the quarterbacks, he said.
He applied to medical school as a bet with a friend
and didn’t study for the MCAT entry exam, Scalea
said. But after doing well, he chose to attend the Medical College of Virginia over working in a factory as a
courier.
Scalea was always attracted to the idea of caring for
the sickest people, he said, and inspired to emulate
a physician he observed while studying in an intensive care unit. At the end of his residency, he accepted
a fellowship and spent 15 years in New York before
moving to Shock Trauma to become its physician in
chief.
ShockTrauma’sinternationalreputationhasgrown
since, and Scalea has published about 750 articles in
medical journals during his tenure. A recent one,
for instance, showed that cardiopulmonary bypass
surgery increased survival rates for patients in lung
failure from COVID-19 infections. Light work for
Scalea, whose 100-hour weeks include nights and
on-call shifts, on top of his teaching and research
duties.
There’snosecrettohisstamina,hesaid.Scaleaexercises at least five days a week, alternately doing cardio
on a bike or lifting, he said. He goes light on red meat
and junk food. And he doesn’t need much sleep — the
night before an interview with The Baltimore Sun, he
said he had dozed perhaps an hour.
“This is the best job in the world,” he said. “This is
whatyoudowheninstantgratificationtakestoolong.”
The immediate pressure of having one shot to save
a life, or multiple lives at once, invigorates Scalea.
Movingthroughthehospital“oncruisecontrol,”Scalea
is totally in the zone when the hospital gets busy, he
said.Andinventingon-the-flysolutionstocomplicated
cases is when he feels the team is at its best.
HesoundedrelaxedduringaconversationwithThe
Sun that followed about six hours in the operating
room reconstructing a patient’s intestines, addressing
complications from work done at another hospital.
Scalea is “a complete icon” in the field of trauma,
Name: Thomas M. Scalea
Age: 74
Hometown: Rochester, New York
Current residence: Baltimore
Education: University of Virginia; Medical College
of Virginia; internship in surgery and medicine
at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse, New York;
residency in surgery at Upstate Medical Center in
Syracuse; critical care and trauma fellowship at
New York Medical College
Career highlights: Physician in chief and chief of
trauma, R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center;
system chief for critical care services, University of
Maryland Medical System; The Honorable Francis
X. Kelly professor of trauma surgery, University
of Maryland School of Medicine; former chief of
critical care and trauma and founding chairman of
the department of emergency medicine at Kings
County Hospital/SUNY Brooklyn
Civic and charitable activities: Former executive
director, Panamerican Trauma Society; former
president, American Association for the Surgery
of Trauma; former director at large, Eastern
Association for the Surgery of Trauma
Family: Unmarried, no children
according to Dr. Deborah Stein, director of adult critical care services at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Stein met Scalea while she was a junior
resident in 2002.
“He’sanamazingboss,”shesaid,inadditiontobeing
an “exceptional” mentor and teacher. A “compassionate humanist,” he celebrates successes, she said, while
encouraging the team to accept situations for what
they are.
Scalea has led international missions to China and
Haiti after earthquakes, expanded Shock Trauma’s
clinical and research offerings, advocated for violence
prevention within the state, and conceived of Maryland’s Stop the Bleed campaign.
Stop the Bleed trains everyday people to help stop
someonefrombleedingtodeath,suchasafteraninjury
like a stabbing. It’s equivalent to CPR training, said Dr.
Mohan Suntha, president and CEO of the University
of Maryland Medical System.
Scalea’s patients likewise praise his delivery of care,
highlighting his honesty and expertise.
Nearly two decades ago, Allie Gold Cunningham
washeadingintoherjunioryearofhighschoolwhena
golfcartaccidentnearKentIslandlandedheratShock
Trauma with brain trauma and multiple organ failure.
“Idon’tthinkIcouldhavesurvivedanywhereelse…
without … his care and dedication and his brilliance,”
said Gold, now 36.
His kind, “lovely” bedside manner during followups fostered a bond, she said. They exchange emails
every year around the anniversary of her accident.
Scalea has no plans to retire yet.
“Every surgeon eventually loses their eyes and loses
their hands. Some of them lose their marbles too,” he
said.“Ithinkthat…themechanicalpartsofsurgeryare
so much more cognitive than they are tactile.”
Inhisownestimation,whenfacedwithrecentchallenging cases, he’s done “really pretty well.”
Even those outside of Scalea’s care might benefit
from his work, as his research and training spread far
beyond Maryland.
“He is literally an international thought leader in
how time-sensitive, critical care medicine is delivered,” Suntha said. Beyond that, Stein said Scalea’s
legacywillberealizedintermsofhumanliveshebenefits, in a domino effect of lifesaving care.
“What his legacy really is is the hundreds, if not
thousands, of us that he has taught will go on to save
hundreds of thousands of more lives. And it perpetuates itself,” Stein said.
— Racquel Bazos
