Director of Cardiac Surgery and Combat Pilot and Dr. Gil Bolotin finds many parallels between his work on the ground and in the sky. Both demand cool nerves, good hands, and above all, excellent decision-making skills.

Whether firmly grounded in the operating room or flying through the sky, Dr. Gil Bolotin strives for perfection.  The director of cardiac surgery at Rambam, Dr. Bolotin formerly served as a combat pilot in a Phantom squadron, and is still a flight instructor during his reserve military service in the Israeli Air Force.

The Combat Pilot, Dr. Gil Bolotin   © pioter fliter

According to Dr. Bolotin there are many parallels between being a combat pilot and a surgeon.  “You must be able to work under pressure and must have a great deal of both theoretical knowledge and common sense,” he says. Good hands, of course, are crucial. And perhaps most importantly, according to Dr Bolotin, you must be able to make the right decisions quickly.
Surgical directors and Air Force commanders share other traits and responsibilities, adds Dr. Bolotin. Both must guide their teams, and prepare them for unexpected actualities. Both must possess strong organizational skills, and be able to manage people.

Dr. Bolotin points to the words that adorn the walls of air force squadrons throughout the world:  "It is better to perform a simple maneuver well, than to perform a complicated maneuver in a mediocre manner." Spoken by British flying ace “Billy” Bishop, during WWI, this quote has guided Dr. Bolotin both in the cockpit and the operating room.

“During operations, I sometimes have to make a real-time decision whether to perform a simple procedure that will provide a good solution for the patient, or to conduct a sophisticated procedure that may have mediocre results,” says Dr. Bolotin.  “This decision can mean the difference between life and death.”

While Dr. Bolotin professes to have been the worst student in his class throughout elementary school, he always loved puttering with machines. Studying at a technical high school, Gil realized he wanted a profession that would combine working with machines and with people. During his military service, that aspiration took shape, and Gil decided to become a doctor.
“Part of my drive comes from my parents, who always supported me,” says Dr. Bolotin. “To a large extent, though, the Air Force formed my personality and my desire to strive to do my best, and with integrity.”

While Gil’s parents were not medical personnel – his father was a graphic artist and his mother a teacher of Italian – Dr. Bolotin does have medicine in his blood, as his maternal grandfather was a surgeon in Italy. This ancestor’s 1890 diploma from the University of Padua now hangs in Gil’s Rambam office.

At Rambam for three years now, Dr. Bolotin was immediately struck by the hospital’s supportive atmosphere. “Doctors receive more encouragement here than in any other hospital I’ve seen,” he says. “In both research and clinical medicine, Rambam also has a great sense of looking – and moving – ahead.”