Dr. Sharona Ross, a nationally respected surgeon, experienced a life-altering moment on June 1 when a bicycle accident left her with multiple fractures and three weeks of unconsciousness. The incident, which she does not remember, transformed her personal recovery into a professional mission to address the widespread tendency among women in high-pressure fields to neglect their own health while caring for others.
The accident resulted in a skull fracture, facial fracture, and left clavicle fracture, requiring emergency treatment in St. Petersburg before transfer to Tampa General Hospital Neurosurgery ICU. After nearly 10 days, she moved to Shepherd Center in Atlanta for inpatient rehabilitation where she initially struggled to walk. Her memory only returned to the day before the incident, with no recollection of the accident itself or subsequent hospital transports.
"My first thought was fear," Dr. Ross recalls. "But it wasn't fear for myself. It was my patients. It was earning back their trust. It was returning to the operating room with absolute certainty." This focus on responsibility rather than survival revealed what she describes as the most honest definition of vocation. The experience highlighted how women in medicine and other demanding professions often normalize exhaustion and treat self-neglect as professionalism.
Dr. Ross acknowledges her own pattern of self-neglect, stating "I neglected myself, not out of shame, out of habit. Women in high-pressure professions do that. We carry everything. We push through. And somewhere along the way, we forget ourselves." Her recovery process revealed that survival is not the same as success, prompting her to develop a new approach to sustaining ambition during adversity.
This personal reckoning has evolved into a broader commitment to help career-driven women protect their health before crisis forces the issue. Dr. Ross is preparing an upcoming book focused on helping women safeguard both physical and emotional well-being without guilt or apology. Her message emphasizes that women don't need to survive alone at the top but should lift one another and protect health along the way.
Dr. Ross will bring her insights to the 16th Annual International Women in Surgery Career Symposium, taking place February 6–7, 2026, at the Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach in Florida. The symposium, dedicated to advancing women in surgical careers, represents the type of collective support she now champions. More information about the event is available at https://www.womeninsurgery.org/symposium.
"The accident didn't pull me off my path," Dr. Ross says. "It sharpened it." She now models a form of leadership grounded in sustainability and purpose that acknowledges limits while maintaining excellence. In a profession that often rewards silence and stoicism, Dr. Ross offers what she describes as something more radical: honesty about the invisible costs of excellence and the importance of self-care as professional practice.
