Michael Peters is an emergency room doctor at Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital. He previously worked in the emergency room at Cook County Hospital. Peters has been practicing emergency medicine since 1997. He also trains paramedics.
Q. Why did you choose emergency medicine over other areas of medicine?
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A. I like taking care of people of all ages, from infants to senior citizens. I like the combination of making medical diagnoses and performing procedures. In emergency medicine, we take care of medical conditions in every area of medicine.
Q. Such as?
A. We’re always ready for trauma patients. We’re a stroke center, a pediatric center. We have patients with medical conditions from chronic diseases like dialysis, cancer, acute seizure, complications of diabetes. There really is nothing in the area of medicine that we don’t see at some point.
Q. What are the challenges of being an emergency room doctor?
A. Caring for patients with high acuity injuries. Some of the things we see are very sad.
Q. Are there seasonal aspects to the types of injuries you see?
A. Yes. In the winter, we see a lot of patients who experience slips and falls. With senior citizens, it can be a catastrophe with hip fractures or head injuries. We see frostbite to hands and feet. We see people with heart attacks from shoveling snow. Motor vehicle crashes increase when it’s icy.
Q. In TV shows or movies, emergency room doctors are frequently running down halls or giving CPR to a person who is being wheeled around on a gurney. Is it like that in a real emergency room?
A. In general, television is always going to be over-dramatizing things. It’s usually a very calm time. I don’t see things like that, out of control, like on television.
Q. While we’re on the topic, do you have a favorite TV show or move about emergency rooms?
A. As a kid I used to watch ‘Emergency. Generally I don’t watch those shows. I’m a fan of old movies.
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