KISSIMMEE, Fla. – A Navy doctor turned trauma medical director credits her approach to her military background.
When Dr. Tracy Bilski enters a room, it's clear she takes charge.
"Trauma in and of itself is what I call organized chaos, and that's whether you're at war in the field or you're in the hospital, " she said.
As trauma bays filled with patients, she never lost her cool, directing the team as the cameras kept rolling. Bilski explained she came from a very patriotic family, with many relatives from the Army and Navy.
She received her medical doctorate from the Jefferson Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and went on to general surgical training at The New York-Presbyterian Hospital - Cornell Medical Center in New York City.
"Fresh out of training, I went into the military, to the Navy," Bilski said. "I was where I was supposed to be."
There were challenges along the way, but Bilski called her service "the best thing that's ever happened."
As a Navy trauma surgeon, she treated military personnel at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California, where she met her husband, a 22-year career Marine. She was later deployed to Egypt, Afghanistan and Iraq.
"My first long deployment, I had three babies at home, and so (I was) thinking about them," Bilski said.
She served the United States Navy for eleven years, and achieved the rank of commander. Now, she uses her expertise to save lives at Osceola Regional Medical Center.
"When we have these, what I call, 'mini mass casualties,' where several trauma patients show up at once, again very akin to things we dealt with, you know, in the war. You train for those things," Bilski said.
Whether it's a car crash or a shooting, Bilski said her team has gone through "mock traumas" to prepare.
"All the things that we did in the military, just team training over and over and over again, building teamwork, creating a team out of the entire hospital, you know, not just the trauma surgeons et cetera, I brought a lot of that back with me from the military," Bilski said.
Two of Bilski's children are interested in pursing military and medical careers.