When James M. Matern first headed to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., his interest lay in biochemistry and biophysics research as a career. It was a volunteer stint at the local Samaritan Hospital that opened his eyes to a new possibility: emergency medicine.
He admits to having an orderly’s role of fetching drinks and stocking shelves, but he knew this was the place he wanted to be. “That’s what really solidified it for me,” Matern, 31, said. His education since then has led him to his new position in the emergency department at The Hospital of Central Connecticut.
Matern brings with him strong urban experience in trauma medicine. While studying at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, he completed an emergency medicine residency at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, Bronx, N.Y., and at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York City. “It was very busy, fast paced. New York isn’t as dangerous as it used to be, but you still get the trauma you would see on ‘E.R.'”
During his Manhattan residency, he spent a month working for a Dade County trauma center in Miami. It provided him his most interesting case. A patient had been shot seven times in the chest. The medical team cut open his chest to attempt to repair his heart. “It was interesting to do. It’s something you read about in the text books, but we actually got to do it in the emergency department,” said Matern, adding the patient did die. “It has a very low success rate,” he said.
Matern returned to Connecticut because he and his wife grew up here, not because his job would be any quieter. The Hospital of Central Connecticut, he said, has the third busiest emergency department between its campuses in New Britain and Southington.
“My plan is to stay in emergency medicine forever,” Matern said, when asked if it was a profession for only young physicians. “I like the other aspects of medicine, but couldn’t see doing them as a career. The emergency room kind of incorporates everything.”
