When critically injured thoroughbred Smarty Jones staggered into the New Jersey Equine Center with a fractured skull, veterinary surgeon Patricia Hogan held her ground amid convictions that the horse's eye would have to be removed.
The Penn alumna, speaking at the School of Veterinary Medicine last night, recounted how she was able to save the eyesight of the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, who narrowly missed capturing the Triple Crown title by finishing second in the 2004 Belmont Stakes.
Hogan, who graduated from the Vet School in 1992, addressed an audience of Veterinary Medicine students on the importance of considering each case individually and using intuitive judgment.
"Sometimes we have a tendency to put our blinders on and just look at the textbook," she said. Being a good surgeon "means knowing when not to pursue surgery."
During a July 2003 training session, Smarty Jones fractured his skull against the starting gate at the racetrack in his native Philadelphia Park. With tissue spilling out around the 2-year-old horse's eye socket, the consensus at the clinic was that the eye would have to be removed.
Hogan, however, was hesitant to act without investigating all alternatives. After running an ultrasound scan, she determined the eye was intact and decided against surgery.
But Hogan was not always this confident. In the early '90s, equine surgery was primarily a male-dominated field. Discrimination was not uncommon throughout Hogan's postgraduate training.
Hogan was the only woman in her three-year residence program at Texas A&M; University. During her first years of practice, she received offensive calls from certain horse trainers.
"When they found out I was a woman, they said, 'No way. I don't want a woman working on my horse.'"
While such experiences were painful, Hogan's sheer love of horses helped her persevere. "When you see these horses go on and fulfill their potential," she said, it "is a really great feeling."
Over the years, Hogan noted, the increasing percentage of women graduating from veterinary schools has made discrimination much less of an issue.
The Penn Vet School Class of 2003 was comprised of 79 women and 31 men.
Hogan spoke in the Rosenthal Building as part of the Dean's Alumni Career Speaker Series.
"It's helpful to get perspectives of people who are out there working," Veterinary student Leslie McLaughlin said.
Concerning the series, Veterinary student Lydia Hamilton said, "The equine ones are always better. I don't attend the other ones."
