Every Wednesday, Lehigh Athletics, Lehigh Valley Health Network and Coordinated Health is proud to recognize a Mountain Hawk Hero - someone associated with Lehigh Athletics who is making a difference in the medical field. We continue today with former quarterback on the football team and current radio analyst, Jim Guzzo.
Previous Mountain Hawk Heroes
June 3: Amina Affini (Women's Basketball Alum)Â
May 27: Natalie Krane (Women's Soccer Alum)
May 20: Tricia Klein (Women's Golf Assistant Coach)
By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Communications
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Jim Guzzo is used to pressure-packed two-minute drills, dating back to his Lehigh football days in the early 1990s.
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Pressure within a game pales in comparison to what the former Lehigh quarterback is doing today – as Chief of the Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery with the Lehigh Valley Health Network.
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In his role as surgeon, Guzzo often needs to make quick decisions under pressure. A recent example surrounds the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically the need to push forward with surgery.
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"Patients come in with aortic aneurysm ruptures and other vascular emergencies, and we have to operate on them," he said. "You can't worry about COVID. You have to put on your N95 mask, forget about it and go to work. There are no blood test with immediate results, so you can't turn your back.
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"It's your two-minute drill."
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When emergency patients enter the hospital, they are tested for COVID-19, but results aren't immediately known.
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"After surgery, the dust settles and the smoke clears," said Guzzo. "They get their test results and fortunately, for the handful of emergencies I had to take care of in the really bad six weeks of COVID, none tested positive.
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"I was very lucky."
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Guzzo's day-to-day protocols have been altered due to the pandemic, but he admittedly is far from the frontlines.
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"I would have to give that recognition to people like my brother who is an ER physician, as well as the ICU professionals who take care of the patients once they're admitted to the hospital," he said. "For vascular, we were forced to postpone a lot of my patients' operations because the elderly are at the highest risk." Â
Procedures around the country were getting postponed as a precaution, but those postponements were also risky at the same time.
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"We were postponing a lot of people with aneurysms that were getting bigger, but could certainly rupture while they're sitting home," said Guzzo. "Thankfully, that didn't happen. It is nerve-racking having to postpone patients who need operations that are probably more lifesaving than an orthopedic surgeon doing a knee replacement.
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"Nonetheless, we all had to push them off for patient safety."
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Speaking of knees, orthopedics is actually where Guzzo's interest began in the medical field – an interest that was born at Lehigh.
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"It began with team physician, Dr. Emil DiIorio and Jack Foley, who was the head athletic trainer and pretty much go-to guy for all our sports injuries," said Guzzo, who majored in biology at Lehigh.
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Unfortunately (and fortunately), Guzzo got to know DiIorio and Foley after suffering an injury in the spring of his junior year.
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"Jim came every day with a positive outlook, ready to get better – whether in the classroom, on the football field or in daily rehab due to an untimely knee injury that would change his skill position and career path," said Foley. "Jim and I spent much time together in rehab and it was during this time that conversation emerged about a possible medical profession. In time, I spoke to Dr. DiIorio about taking Jim under his wing in orthopedics at Coordinated Health in observation of his craft, while fielding questions and offering advice supporting Jim's path going forth."
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Guzzo wound up working with DiIorio in the operating room one summer.
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"We would see patients and work around some of the post-operative athletes who had shoulder reconstructions, knee reconstructions… you name it," said Guzzo. "I had a good time getting people back on their feet and felt that connection to stay in athletics long after hanging up my cleats. Having gone through it myself with my knee injury inspired me even more."
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Before Guzzo's injury, he was backup for two of Lehigh football's all-time great quarterbacks – Glenn Kempa and Scott Semptimphelter – who still stand No. 3 and 5 in program history for passing yards in a season. Â
"They were two of the best ever," said Guzzo.
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After his knee injury, Gurzzo wouldn't return to the football field for more than two years, but at Johns Hopkins University.
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"Once I rehabbed my knee, I dabbled with coming back to play and I knew it was going to be a lot harder at Lehigh having missed all that time," said Guzzo. "Also, there weren't a lot of guys at that time on a medical track. Dr. DiIorio said maybe a change of scenery was what I needed. I only thought he was half joking, meaning change majors."
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However, that isn't what DiIorio meant, so Guzzo took the advice and considered all his options. At the time, Jim's brother was being recruited by Johns Hopkins for football.
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Guzzo would find himself at Johns Hopkins for his fourth and fifth years, playing football and wrapping up his bachelor's degree. He then attended medical school at the University of Vermont, followed by six years at the University of Maryland for his general surgery residency.
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Guzzo later returned to Johns Hopkins Hospital for his vascular surgery fellowship.
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"In vascular surgery, you get to be a hybrid surgeon, doing traditional open surgery and endovascular procedures like interventional radiologists," he said. "You operate all over the body on extremely challenging, extremely ill patients.
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"There aren't any sicker patients than vascular patients," Guzzo continued. "I saw the challenge of operating on people with life-threatening issues as a little bit more up my ally as I went through medical school.
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"I wanted to jump into that swimming pool and see if I could swim."
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Guzzo has certainly done just that. Using another sports metaphor, he has also "punched it into the end zone" on his two-minute drill – and with authority.
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Even though the pressure Guzzo deals with as a surgeon (having someone's life in his hands) is pressure not many people can understand, he believes the skills learned as a Lehigh student-athlete are helping him to this day.
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Specifically, how to process a lot of information quickly and effectively.
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"Being under pressure was the hallmark of Air Lehigh under head coach Hank Small," said Guzzo. "He gave a lot of responsibility to the guy under center as far as getting the right plays and right checks. It was as sophisticated as any offense in the country. Athletes love to compete, and are often drawn to pressure. You need to think on your feet, do the right thing and react.
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"There are absolutely some parallels to certain operations, in particular ruptured aneurysms or stroke reduction surgery – when somebody's had a stroke and you have to remove the neck artery plaque that caused the stroke."
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A lot of characteristics from Guzzo's football days have carried forward, including his competitiveness.
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"Jim was a competitor in everything he did, starting with the ongoing quarterback battle and being a leader among his teammates," said Foley. "Despite the knee injury, his path would change for the better. His choice in specialty (vascular) surprised me at first, yet made sense in how he operated daily – wanting to call the shots. He liked to be challenged, even during an intense long-term rehab process. Jim developed goals with priorities at an early stage and made our time together enjoyable in his growth and choice of medical profession."
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Guzzo didn't officially graduate from Lehigh, but he undoubtedly remains part of the Lehigh football family. He remains a source of pride for the entire program, and athletics department. After growing up in Bethlehem, he returned to the area shortly after his fellowship.
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"I was in private practice in Baltimore for two years and when a job opened up here in the Lehigh Valley, I bolted back home," said Guzzo. "My parents are still here and my dad is a Lehigh grad, class of 1970. I started going back to games on Saturdays with my kids at Goodman Stadium and often bumped into former teammates."
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Guzzo remains engrained in Lehigh football, even serving as radio analyst for some games.
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"I knew former teammate Lance Haynes had dabbled in radio and my other fraternity brother, Mike Yadush, had done radio and TV," said Guzzo. "It was a little intimidating working with (radio play-by-play announcer) Matt Kerr because to me, he is a big name for Lehigh Sports. I was a little robotic my first few games, but now I'm a few years into it."
Guzzo in the radio booth with Matt Kerr at Lafayette
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It's safe to say everything has come full circle and Guzzo couldn't ask for more.
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"I've been able to come home, work at my hometown hospital and reconnect with Lehigh football," he said. "I've spent a bunch of time in the press box and reconnect with some of the players, a couple of whom interned for me in the summer."
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They interned for Guzzo much like Guzzo worked for DiIorio.
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For all the success Guzzo has enjoyed in the field of medicine, it hasn't come without challenges.
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"I was operating on a big aneurysm with my partner and there was a point when it was going really poorly. It's the kind of moments when the room gets real quiet," said Guzzo. "One of our summer students – former wide receiver Cam Richardson – was in the room. There's Cam probably wondering what was going on. I looked at my partner and said I didn't know if we could get out of this."
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How did his partner respond?
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By asking Guzzo what Richardson would tell the rest of his team.
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"At that point, the mood in the room lightened," said Guzzo. "We'd been here before, and we got out of dodge. Those kinds of analogies (like comparing it to a two-minute drill) are very real and they stick with you forever in whatever career path you choose. When those moments come up, they're not foreign to you.
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"With the profession I chose, a bad outcome is a really bad day for somebody else. It adds a different element of pressure."
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While most would be nervous just thinking about the pressure-filled setting of an operating room, thriving under pressure is what makes medical professionals like Guzzo true heroes.
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"What keeps me going is that every day has a different challenge," he said. "Even though you're dealing with the same vascular pathology, every patient is a little different, the challenge is a little different and what they bring to the table is different.
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"That pressure is part of the work. That's why you get into this business."
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