I’m not saying they don’t deserve it, obviously I know they have our lives between their hands. To my knowledge, they base their calculations around our weights and heights. What else makes it so difficult?
In: Biology
A surgeon focuses on his/her surgery and very little else (usually). An anesthesiologist keeps the patient alive (protects you from the surgeon) and takes care of everything else during the surgery.
For instance, in an appendectomy, the surgeon focuses on taking out the appendix. The anesthesiologist takes care of the heart failure/COPD/kidney failure and all other medical problems the patient has.
In another example: a patient is having a life threatening bleed from a blood vessel (may be from a stab wound, may be because the surgeon cut a blood vessel by accident). The surgeon looks for the blood vessel to stop bleeding. The anesthesiologist keeps the patient alive with blood transfusions and blood pressure medication to keep the blood pressure at a safe level (otherwise you get brain or heart damage that would kill you), among other things (like keeping up with calcium, platelet, fresh frozen plasma, and correcting high potassium levels). If you get yourself screwed up, a good surgeon and a good anesthesiologist will save your life.
Healthy people are quite easy to keep alive. But they’re not the ones getting surgery, at least not at a major tertiary care hospital. Senior citizens who can’t walk to the bathroom and people with medical problem lists longer than my forearm are the ones that we get paid the big bucks for.
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