William Lynes, MD

William Lynes is a urologist and author of A Surgeon's Knot.

Preventing physician burnout: an educational approach

Physician

December 23, 2025

The frequency and severity of physician burnout have resulted in an epidemic that is impairing the American health care delivery system. Herbert Freudenberger coined the term burnout in 1977, referring to a syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization or cynicism, and a lack of personal accomplishment. He noted that burnout reduced health care workers’ ability to provide excellent patient care and adversely affected their well-being.

Physician burnout is rampant in the …

The decline of the doctor-patient relationship

William Lynes, MD

Physician

October 25, 2025

Something is wrong with our health care system. Our country spends more per capita than any other developed nation, yet we have some of the worst health care outcomes. Rising costs are making health care prohibitive. Access to the system is becoming a growing concern. Medical care has become bureaucratic, bulky, and inefficient. I am a retired physician, a urologist, who has observed the health care system from outside medical …

A urologist’s perspective on presidential health transparency

William Lynes, MD

Conditions

October 20, 2025

As a urologist, I consider myself an expert on the subject of prostate cancer. Here is a urologist’s view of a hypothetical announcement from a former U.S. president, five months after leaving office, of widespread high-grade metastatic prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in males. It begins as a cancer in the prostate, and with progression, metastatic disease occurs, primarily in the axial skeleton. Prostate cancer is known …

Teaching medical students what it is really like to be a physician

William Lynes, MD

Physician

October 12, 2025

Physician burnout and physician suicide continue to plague the medical profession. Everyone knows the tragic statistic: one U.S. physician commits suicide each day. While some statistics report a decrease in the problem over time, the accuracy of these reports is questionable. The reality is that it is far too common.

The term burnout, while a necessary label, implies that a single factor causes it. In reality, each burned-out physician is different. …

Should transgender athletes compete in women’s sports?

William Lynes, MD

Conditions

September 5, 2024

Watching the 2024 Paris Olympics reminded me of my intense love for sports. It is the nobility, beauty, strength, agility, and fairness that attract me and the audience. Performances by Simone Biles, with her majesty and strength, to Katie Ledecky’s’ power and domination, surrounded by Olympic and world record performances, often bring me to tears. These attributes have abounded in Paris, but unfortunately, something foul is also afoot.

Sexual and gender …

Tragic turn in the OR: A rookie doctor’s race against time

William Lynes, MD

Physician

January 26, 2024

An excerpt from A Surgeon’s Knot.

The phone jarred Jackson Cooper, MD’s weary, anxious brain into consciousness from the edge of sleep. He jumped up, dropping the receiver on the cold floor of the call room. “Hello,” he said, tension entering the new intern’s mind.

“Dr. Cooper,” the nurse’s voice said nervously. She almost stuttered as she spoke. “It . . . it’s . . . Mr. Simpson, he’s bleeding. I …

A Cuba missionary journey: Witnessing faith amidst hardship

William Lynes, MD

Physician

December 27, 2023

I had the honor and privilege of visiting Cuba for a missionary trip this past week. As I ponder that amazing time, I will put my thoughts in this essay.

Cuba is a small, sad country in the Caribbean. While one can see the tropical beauty and its former potential, the country has been ruined by a communist government and an overarching U.S. embargo, whose presence is now unnecessary. The Cuban …

Unmasking physician burnout: a survivor’s story and solutions for a healthy medical profession

William Lynes, MD

Physician

July 3, 2023

I am a physician, a urologist, but what most people don’t know about me is that I am a survivor of mental illness, physician burnout, and multiple suicide attempts. Today, I write about the condition of the medical profession, its problem with burnout, and its solutions.

I began practicing general urology in 1987. My subsequent life as a physician can be divided into two very different eras. In the first era, …

From physician to survivor: My inspiring journey through burnout, mental illness, and triumph

William Lynes, MD

Physician

June 26, 2023

I am a physician, specifically a urologist. However, what most people do not know about me is that I am a survivor of multiple suicide attempts. My essay attempts to tell my personal story—a story of burnout, mental illness, and suicide—and to discuss the shame that accompanied these experiences.

I completed my urologic residency in 1987 at Stanford University and began practicing with the Southern California Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in …

The tragic story of Mr. G: a painful journey towards understanding suicide

William Lynes, MD

Physician

June 3, 2023

A most memorable message awaited me on my desk one morning: a brief note from Mrs. G asking, “Why did my husband take his own life today?”

Startled, I reflected on Mr. G’s history as I had been treating him in my urology clinic for the past few months. It had recently come to my attention that his complaints were related to painful recurrent renal colic.

Anticipating a distressing phone call, I …

The 4 stages of suicidal ideation: a physician’s experience with burnout and self-compassion

William Lynes, MD

Conditions

May 20, 2023

I am a physician, a urologist, and a survivor of multiple suicide attempts related to physician burnout. In dealing with my psychopathology, I experienced a devolution in my mental status, culminating in suicidal behavior. I can remember the exact moment when I acknowledged that suicide was a possible solution to my problems. At one moment, I felt revulsion at the idea of suicide but crossed over to accept it. This …

Lazarus: the dead man brought back to life

William Lynes, MD

Conditions

March 24, 2023

Lazarus is a man of the new testament, living in the time of Jesus Christ in the city of Bethany. He was the brother of two of Christ’s followers, sisters Mary and Martha. Bethany sat less than 2 miles south of Jerusalem in Israel. The story of Lazarus’ death and Christ’s rising from the dead is depicted in John 11:1-45.

What are the details of Lazarus’ illness and subsequent reappearance?

As only …

The invisibility of mental illness

William Lynes, MD

Conditions

March 23, 2022

While the mental illness patient is afflicted by very real and painful feelings, these feelings are internal and not visible to others. The indications of the condition then, whether those of depression, anxiety, or even hallucinations, can be said to be invisible to observers — family, doctor, etc. — in fact, to everyone other than that individual sufferer of mental illness.

A constellation of signs and symptoms is often used to …

Read more…

The invisibility of mental illness

A physician’s personal experience with sepsis and ventilator support

William Lynes, MD

Conditions

April 29, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has turned the world, and all of its citizens, around, never to be the same again. As an ICU and ventilator survivor, I focus on the drama of the patient’s room, and the reality of what is truly a tragic experience. Nineteen-ninety-eight seems like yesterday, and while it was 22 years ago, it is fresh in my mind.

The vacation abroad that fall was a sunny respite from …

Quitting medicine: a disgraced survivor of a bloody suicide attempt

William Lynes, MD

Physician

October 19, 2019

Addressed to Dr. Lynes, the note sat menacingly in my inbox like a distress signal ominously blinking on a battered ocean coast.

“Mr. Smith wants you to read the note before his preop, the nurse said harmlessly.” A premonition that day, just one more irrational fear in my downward spiral into darkness.

I am a physician, practicing a noble profession of merit. Sepsis, from a visit to Mexico, began a sad journey …

William Lynes, MD

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