Tales from a Trauma Surgeon: From War Zones to Inner City America, to Saving the Life of Gabby Giffords

We are re-airing this interview which originally aired on June 5, 2014. 

Dr. Peter Rhee played a vital role in saving Congresswoman Gabby Giffords’ life in Arizona in 2011 when she was a victim of an act of violence that left six dead and 13 wounded. Born in South Korea, Rhee moved with his family to Uganda where he watched his father remove a spear from a man’s belly—and began his lifelong interest in medicine. In Trauma Red: The Making of a Surgeon in War and in America’s Cities Dr. Rhee chronicles the cases he’s handled over two decades on two distinct battle fronts: In Iraq and Afghanistan, where he served as a frontline US Navy surgeon, and in the urban zones of Los Angeles and Washington, DC, where he has been confronted by an endless stream of victims of violence and accidents.