Peggy Knudson Receives 2017 Heroes & Hearts Award from San Francisco General Hospital Foundation
UCSF News reports on this year's Heroes & Hearts Award ceremony at which UCSF trauma surgeon M. Margaret “Peggy” Knudson, M.D., FACS and three other recipients where honored. The Heroes & Hearts program, is celebrated "as a way to bring the community together to celebrate the essential role Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital plays in the city and to honor local heroes whose actions improve the community." The award recognizes extraordinary heroes in the San Francisco Bay Area who exemplify the “go above and beyond” spirit of the Foundation, and the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG).
UC San Francisco physicians and staff were among those honored by The San Francisco General Hospital Foundation in this year’s Heroes & Hearts Award, which recognizes individuals within the community who go above and beyond the call of duty to care for the people of San Francisco.
Those from UCSF honored in the 2017 Heroes & Hearts Award are Anais Amaya; M. Margaret Knudson, MD, FACS; and Dean Schillinger, MD. According to the foundation, each recipient has demonstrated exceptional and inspirational expertise in health care.
Knudson, an attending trauma surgeon at ZSFG and professor of surgery at UCSF, was recognized for her emergency intervention, surgery, and recovery care of a 6-year-old patient who, in September of 2016, was rushed to the ZSFG trauma center with life-threatening injuries. Knudson’s was honored for quick thinking and expert surgical skills that saved the patient’s life.
About Dr. Peggy Knudson
M. Margaret “Peggy” Knudson, M.D.,FACS is an attending trauma surgeon at ZSFG, a professor of surgery at UCSF and the Medical Director of the Military Health System Strategic Partnership American College of Surgeons (MHSSPACS). In addition to numerous surgery residencies, Dr. Knudson has been involved with the development of trauma systems in California, with a special interest in pediatric trauma.
She has been on the front lines treating trauma victims in major disasters, ranging from the Haitian earthquake to the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214, and has served as visiting surgeon in both Germany and Iraq, where she treated soldiers who were injured on the battlefield. In 2012, Dr. Knudson was named to U.S. News "America's Top Doctors," which reflects her inclusion in the top 1% of physicians in the U.S. for her specialty in general surgery.
Additionally, Dr. Knudson served as the Vice Chair of the Committee on Trauma at the national and state levels, and has been a member of the Executive Committee, American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, and of the Board of Managers of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the Western Trauma Association and the National Trauma Institute.
She is a member of the editorial board of several journals including the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, and Shock. In 2016 she was named the prestigious Fitts Orator at the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma.