National Veterans and Military Families Month Spotlight: MS2 Ben Litmanovich
Meet Ben Litmanovich, a second year medical student at the College of Medicine Tucson. Litmanovich separated from the Air Force as a technical sergeant after nine years, culminating in a year-long deployment in various leadership roles during the COVID-19 response in New England.
Currently, he conducts research with the Gurtner lab and Dr. Bellal Joseph within the Department of Surgery, aspiring to practice in the field of reconstructive surgery and/or trauma surgical critical care.
Hey, Ben Litmanovich here! I‘m a MS2 (Class of 2025) and a researcher with the Gurtner Lab as well as Dr. Joseph’s team in the Department of Surgery. I first joined the Air Force when I took the oath of enlistment back in November 2012, and my service continued into my first months in medical school, when I finally left in November 2021.
I joined the Air Force because public service has always been a foundational value in my family. My parents immigrated from Belarus just after the Chernobyl crisis, and I was raised with childhood stories of my grandfather protecting scarce food supplies as his village’s local veterinarian. My mother worked overnight as a nurse and was somehow still able to give us empathy and care even after doing the same for her patients during her exhausting shifts. They are my inspiration for why I first enlisted and am now pursuing a career in medicine.
My journey included six years at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, MA, in an Aerospace Staging Squadron. There, we prepared to stabilize and treat critically injured veterans. After I extended my orders within the Rhode Island Air Guard, I was called into active duty during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During this time, I was the lead medic in our initial unit that was stood up at the start of the pandemic. We assisted with congregate care facility shortages, and as one of the Air Force's enlisted leaders on site; I helped facilitate the day to day operations of Rhode Island's major rapid-test site. I completed these orders after educating healthcare facilities on how to develop infection control protocols, sharing current literature on the nature of the virus, and vaccinating thousands of our citizens in need as new prophylaxis became available.
My path to the University of Arizona College of Medicine Tucson came thanks to two operational tours of duty at HonorHealth, which offers a partnership with the U.S. Air Force for medical personnel to train and perform at their military scope of practice in Phoenix.
There, I was exposed to the diverse patient population and needs of the communities within Arizona. I also gained mentorship from local physicians and learned valuable hospital skillsets I carry with me as a student currently. It also instilled in me a desire to learn medicine from a perspective outside of the military and New England.
In 2021, I moved to Tucson for medical school, where I‘ve been able to, through research, work on my goals of helping veterans and reducing health disparities. With the Gurtner Lab, I research wound healing and chronic diseases, while as part of Dr. Joseph’s group I help identify key outcomes and advancements within our nation’s trauma system.
Ultimately, there is nothing quite like the hustle and bustle involved in caring for the critically ill veteran over the deafening drone of tail rotors, or taking charge on the home front in the heart of a difficult pandemic. Working through conditions that both test and strengthen mental and physical fortitude and the leadership, tenacity, and empathy I‘ve had to develop and hope to continue to grow help me conceptualize the lessons I receive in medical school beyond the textbooks into the unpredictable nature of medicine. I'd be remiss to leave out the applicable benefits of a relationship I've nurtured with coffee.