NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The last few weeks have presented unique challenges for Kathy Ching '00. Ching, who starred for the Yale softball team, is working as a general surgeon with the Providence Medical Group in Portland, Oregon.
 
Fortunately, she has the lessons she learned at Yale to guide her.
 
"Everything from my days at Yale made me the person I am today," she says.
 
Teamwork, sacrifice, tenacity, humility, support. All are traits she developed as a Bulldog and remain with her today.
 
"It takes a bunch of people from doctors to cleaning staff to make an operation safe and successful," she says. "There are a lot of things in medicine that will knock you down, and you must get back up, dust yourself off, learn more and then go again with a different game plan. You must have the humility to always know there is more to learn and balance that with belief in your knowledge and skills. There are a lot of things out of your control, but you do the best you can to prepare and then get your job done. When you see your teammate struggling then you help them because everyone needs help from time to time. I strongly believe that everything that happens to you in the past contributes to who you are in your current form."
 
Certainly, the current Covid-19 pandemic would fall under the category of the unexpected. While she isn't directly treating patients with the virus, she has experienced first-hand the effects.
 
"Most hospitals have curtailed operations to only essential operations," she explains. "The severity of what is considered essential changes from day to day as equipment supplies dictate. For example, late last month we were in very short supply of equipment so only operations that were an immediate threat to the patient within 48 hours were done. Now that it looks like Oregon is doing better with infection rate and we have received a little more supplies, we have changed the essential operations to treating problems that are a threat to the patient in the next 2-6 weeks. Operations are now ranked on urgency. This is allowing us to perform cancer operations which were on hold for a short time. That has been hard. We have patients that have a known cancer and we have had to ask them to wait."
 
That has led to some difficult decisions.
 
"Instead of simply presenting the treatment options that will be best for the patient, I now have to balance the potential harm to the patient of delaying treatment with the potential harm that I may do my operating room staff and myself if the patient is contagious," she says. "I also have to think about the downstream consequences on the hospital as a whole of using scarce personal protective equipment (PPE) to operate on a patient if and when PPE runs low. I learned how to triage patients when I worked on the trauma service. This is a whole new level of triage decision-making."
 
She also has witnessed other effects around the hospital.
 
"Friends and coworkers are coming down with symptoms," she says. "[Recently] I saw a line of hospital workers standing outside a meeting room waiting to get their blood drawn. Providence started an antibody clinical trial and there was a line hours before the study was announced. It spread by word of mouth before the official email. I take it as a sign of how badly people want information about the virus and willingness to give more to find these answers."
 
Ching didn't intend to become a surgeon during her days at Yale. Initially she was drawn to biological sciences and spent three years as a research assistant at Oregon Health and Science University after graduation. Then, she decided it was time for medical school and attended OHSU medical school, graduating in 2007. After doing her general surgery residency at Kaiser Permanente Southern California which was based in Los Angeles, she returned to Portland as a private practice general surgeon.
 
"In the end, I chose my profession correctly. I love operating. I love working with my OR staff," she says. "There are times when it is difficult and depressing, but there are also times when it is really great. I love fixing things so that people can get on with their lives. If my patient gets an operation and then forgets me and the problem I fixed, then I feel that is a great success."
 
During her softball playing days at Yale, Ching was among the most successful base stealers in the nation. As a first year in 1997, she stole 64 bases, including six in a game with Vermont, which remains the Ivy League record. The 64 thefts are still the ninth most in a season in NCAA history. Ching's 163 career stolen bases are a school record and the 16^th most in NCAA history.
 
Does she still keep track of her records?
 
"I have checked twice. Once when I was updating my resume for my surgery residency application and when [it was] just brought up now," she says "It's nice, but records are meant to be broken. Yale Softball helped to make me the person I am today - that means far more to me than staying at the top of a list."
 
And as she approaches her 20^th reunion, is she still fast?
 
"In terms of running, definitely not! I'm sure I'd pull a muscle if I tried to sprint," she says. "With respect to surgery, I am efficient and safe...and maybe just a little bit on the faster side."