Dr. Salles rests in a private room for doctor and surgeons, at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California. March 27, 2015.Balazs Gardi for TIME
The photographer Balazs Gardi spent almost a decade in Afghanistan, covering the conflict between U.S. forces and the Taliban. He was in the Korengal Valley when the U.S. hunted Osama Bin Laden in 2004. He was with the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines in Helmand Province as the war was at its most intense. He’s no stranger to high stress situations and to working long hours with little sleep.
And yet, he tells TIME, one of the toughest experiences he’s had as a photographer was one closer to home: shadowing Dr. Arghavan Salles on rotation at Santa Clara Valley’s Medical Center.
On assignment for TIME, Gardi was up at 3:00 a.m. to meet with the chief surgical resident in General Surgery and Trauma as she woke up for the first of two 18-hour shifts. “I’ve worked with a lot of firefighters and doctors when I was a newspaper photographer in my native Hungary, so the hospital environment wasn’t new for me,” he says. “But the U.S. is still relatively new for me — I’ve only lived here for four years — and I had, so far, avoided visiting hospitals in this country.”
What he saw didn’t just surprise him — it shocked him. He witnessed exhausted and dehydrated doctors forced to power through back-breaking shifts, performing grueling surgeries one after the other and spending short-lived moments of respite with the lingering knowledge that at any moment they might be called back for an emergency.
Gardi knew exhaustion was part of a doctor’s life but, as he followed Dr. Salles, he was surprised at how quickly it set in. Plus, he says, many doctors purposely under hydrate themselves ahead of complex surgeries in order to avoid having to use the restrooms in the middle of an operation. “The combination of exhaustion and dehydration is dangerous,” he says “And what I saw was just 48 hours in the life of a doctor. For them, it’s their life cycle for many years. There’s no way I could do that.”
While Gardi knew that the life of an emergency doctor was a difficult one, he now says he has a newfound appreciation for the sacrifices they make every day. “They deserve better,” he says.
Balazs Gardi is a freelance photographer based in Oakland, Calif.
Tara Johnson, who edited this photo essay, is an Associate Photo Editor at TIME.
Olivier Laurent is the editor of TIME LightBox. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @olivierclaurent
Caption from LIFE. Student nurses at New York's Roosevelt Hospital.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. Many of the 49 nurses peering into the stair well have no caps. This means that they are novices.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. During their first six months student nurses must take calisthenics one night a week under a trained gym teacher.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesStudent nurses at New York's Roosevelt Hospital, 1938.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. The first two weeks see the new nurse inducted into the ethics of her profession. She listens to talks on life in New York, on living with a group, on the problems of hospital administration. At first she has to buy her own blue uniform, black stockings and low-heeled shoes. After she has been capped, the hospital supplies the uniform.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. Ward duty begins at 7 am, when nurses meet with the head day nurse (center), who relays to them the report left by the head night nurse. She here explains the chart of a patient in the male surgical ward (in background). Striped garb indicates capped nurses; white uniforms, graduate nurses. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesStudent nurses at New York's Roosevelt Hospital, 1938.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. Novices dissect their first frog in anatomy.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. After dinner nurses read in library or dance together in reception room.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesStudent nurses at New York's Roosevelt Hospital, 1938.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. On Saturday, nurses may go out till midnight. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesStudent nurses at New York's Roosevelt Hospital, 1938.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. Operating room duty is the most interesting part of a nurse's life. Not till the end of her first year is she considered prepared for it.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesStudent nurses at New York's Roosevelt Hospital, 1938.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesStudent nurses at New York's Roosevelt Hospital, 1938.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesStudent nurses at New York's Roosevelt Hospital, 1938.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesStudent nurses at New York's Roosevelt Hospital, 1938.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. In the first month the new student learns to make beds. She begins with a dummy known in the Roosevelt Hospital as "Helen Chase." Behind stands instructor in nursing arts.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesStudent nurse with children at New York's Roosevelt Hospital, 1938.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. Like nuns, the young student nurses march down the main corridor of the Roosevelt Hospital on their way from classrooms to wards.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. "Capping" services take place in the reception room of the Nurses' Home. The novices, having successfully passed examinations for their crucial first six months, are now permitted to wear bibbed apron, the striped uniform and the cap of the full-fledged student nurse.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesChief Surgery Resident Dr. Arghavan Salles talks to patient Tom Debonet at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California, on March 27, 2015.Balazs Gardi for TIMEDr. Salles in the emergency room stabilizing a patient who was brought in after being injured in a car accident. Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California. March 28, 2015.Balazs Gardi for TIMEDr. Salles in the operating room rotation at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California. March 27, 2015.
Balazs Gardi for TIMEDr. Salles in the operating room at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California, on March 27, 2015.Balazs Gardi for TIMEDr. Salles eating a late lunch, rests in the private room for doctors and residents. Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California. March 28, 2015.Balazs Gardi for TIMEDr. Salles rests in a private room for doctor and surgeons, at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California. March 27, 2015.Balazs Gardi for TIMEDr. Salles on rotation at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California, on March 27, 2015.
On the phone, Dr. Adella Garland, Trauma Medical Director General Surgery Division Chief Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery.Balazs Gardi for TIMEDr. Salles performs a laparoscopic surgery toward the end of the evening, at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California. March 28, 2015.Balazs Gardi for TIMEChief Surgery Resident Dr. Arghavan Salles on rotation at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California, on March 27, 2015.Balazs Gardi for TIMEDr. Salles walks to her car to drive home at the end of her workday. March 28, 2015.Balazs Gardi for TIME
