Carol Shores, MD, PhD, had her hobby of sailing lead her to a new clinical interest in surgical critical care. She’s currently the sole critical care physician on the island of St. Croix.
When she found herself at age 52, divorced, with grown kids and a new love in her life who shared the same dream, she retired from her career as a full professor of head and neck surgery at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 2014, bought a 34-foot Tartan, old-style sailboat (circa 1972), and embarked on a three-and-a-half-year journey sailing through the Caribbean. “We sailed all the way up and down the U.S. East Coast, then from Jamaica to Grenada, and then back up the Caribbean Island chain,” she said.
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December 2023But during her cruise, she started to miss practicing medicine and wondered if there was a way that she could practice part time. “I wanted to work just a little bit,” she said, “so I started looking around and learned that any board-certified surgeon can become board-certified in critical care through the American Board of Surgery.”
I wanted to work just a little bit, so I started looking around and learned that any board-certified surgeon can become board-certified in critical care through the American Board of Surgery. — Carol Shores, MD, PhD
She and her partner docked their boat in Florida and at age 59, she pursued a surgical critical care fellowship at the University of Florida, Jacksonville. Fortunately, it didn’t require her to navigate demanding night calls, providing a unique opportunity for someone in her age group.
After the successful completion of her fellowship, Dr. Shores and her partner sailed to their favorite island, St. Croix, in 2019, intending to work and live there. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic altered their plans, however, and Dr. Shores found herself at the forefront of the island’s medical response, facing challenges unique to a small community with limited resources.
Dr. Shores and her now-husband live on St. Croix, and she feels content in her current role as the sole critical care doctor on the island at the Governor Juan F. Luis Hospital and Medical Center. She says she’s well paid, the workload is manageable, the diverse cases she handles regularly satisfy her intellectual curiosity, and she’s glad she didn’t have to choose between her sailing dream and her ability to continue to practice medicine. “I’m just really happy I was able to do both,” she said.
Renée Bacher is a freelance medical writer based in Louisiana.