At 41, Shim Ju-hyeon, a clinical assistant professor at the Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, is considered “young blood” among pediatric surgeons in Korea, where 76 percent of specialists are 50 or older. A steady stream of patients arrives for surgery at the hospital’s Congenital Disease Center, from babies born with a blocked esophagus to children with perforated intestines. Things were no different at Ajou University Hospital, where she worked until last month. She spent seven years on call 365 days a year, ready to rush to the hospital at any moment, and performed an average of 400 surgeries a year. After her mentor retired, Shim shouldered the entire workload alone until the hospital recruited another surgeon. “Many retired pediatric surgeons, some well into their 70s, are called back to hospitals because there is no one else to perform surgeries,” Shim said. “And I think that is how it will be for me as well.” Her fears are well founded: the ranks of younger doctors are even thinner, with only one pediatric surgeon in their 30s in the entire