Normally, it would be very unusual for a dead frog and a human family to have even one thing in common.

But for Mitchell Woodbury, they do have something in common. After all, they both gave him the drive and inspiration to become a surgeon.

The frog in question was the subject of dissection in Woodbury’s freshman anatomy class. “I was like, ‘Holy cow, this is awesome. I wanna try it more,’” he said. He discovered that seeing how living organisms work on the inside was “fascinating.”

Woodbury was given the task of dissecting the frog as the main operator. Under the watchful eye of the projector’s document camera — and his teacher, Mr. Sherman — Woodbury had to cut open the frog’s body and keep it pinned open as he displayed every organ they’d been studying inside.

“We had to show the egg sac, then move that aside, show the liver — all the stuff,” he said

That’s not to say that this was his only influence. His family was another factor for his choice.

“My uncle is a doctor, and my brother was also interested in the medical field,” Woodbury said. “So, I guess it helped a bit that there were other people in the family interested in the same things.”

Currently, Woodbury is considering what kind of surgeon he wants to be. He has contemplated being an emergency room surgeon, since patients in life-threatening situations will need the immediate help, especially if the available staff is short-handed.

“If you have more people willing to help out, there’s probably gonna be less of a wait to get to the more serious cases quicker,” he said.

That said, Woodbury is a Catholic, and with Catholics there are issues as to the boundary line between what humans can handle and what God can take care of.

“Personally, the way I see it, as a good person you’re supposed to do everything you can in your power to do things right,” Woodbury said. “Then, once it’s out of your power and you can’t do anything else, you just have to let it go.”

So how does this play into Woodbury’s choice of career path?

“My thoughts in being a surgeon is: I can do as much as I can. I can operate as much as I can. I can do anything I can to help the person,” he said. “But, if there’s something beyond my power, I can only hope that God, or — if there isn’t a God, even — that someone will help, so that I can try to save the person’s life.”