An affinity for things he could build or repair led Dr. Nathaniel Wolkenfeld to become a general surgeon.

Practicing since 2014, Wolkenfeld is working with Drs. Donald Davenport and Faye Armstrong-Papp at Medical Center Hospital.

“Dr. Wolkenfeld’s community presence is expected to have a long-term impact on excellent surgical care for Ector County and surrounding areas. We are excited to establish a long-term relationship with him,” Davenport said in a text message.

Wolkenfeld is one of about 10 surgeons affiliated with the hospital. He has been at MCH since May 1 and was in Show Low, Ariz., for seven years before that.

Wolkenfeld, who is from the San Fernando Valley in California, earned a bachelor’s degree from Yeshiva University and graduated from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, both in New York City.

He has two brothers and two sisters.

General surgery includes a wide variety of procedures such as hernia, gallbladder, appendix, colon, and breast cancer, to name a few, he said.

He also performed a lot of endoscopies previously.

“I always liked medicine and also was somewhat mechanical, like building model rockets and model cars. … I liked anatomy because it was very hands-on; mechanical. I like the idea of fixing things and it’s a more immediate effect,” Wolkenfeld said.

Instead of treating and following a condition for years, you can fix an acute problem and see the results quickly.

“… It’s very immediate and immediately gratifying,” Wolkenfeld said.

Robotic surgery is something new he’ll be doing at Medical Center.

“… It’s been growing every year and so it’s a nice thing that they have here. They’re pretty supportive of it here,” Wolkenfeld said.

“… It makes it nice for me because I can focus on just kind of picking up the skill set,” he added.

The practice environment at MCH was one of the main things that drew him to Odessa.

“I was looking to be busier and this is a bigger hospital and it is busier. … I knew I … still wanted to have an experienced surgeon as backup to continue to pick up new things. … It looked like there was a need, which was the main thing, and that there were good, nice people that I could work with and would be good colleagues to learn from …,” Wolkenfeld said.

He added that everyone has been “super nice” and “super hospitable.”

“… I’ve never been called sir so much of my life. Must be a Texas thing. So far everyone is extremely supportive and helpful and better than I could expect,” Wolkenfeld said.

A vast majority of residents go into fellowships and get into subspecialties.

Wolkenfeld wanted to get out there and start working.

“And I kind of knew that I didn’t want to be in a major city, and I wanted to be able to keep everything very broad,” and he could do a lot of different types of procedures instead of “getting too narrow.”

In the beginning, he said, you expect it to take some time to build up your elective practice. The pandemic put a crimp in that process.

“I definitely felt it … Besides actually canceling elective cases, there were also less people coming to the office …,” Wolkenfeld said.

People also didn’t want to come to the hospital and just live with their conditions, so elective surgeries have likely piled up. During this recent surge, elective surgeries that require overnight stays have been stopped, Trevor Tankersley, director of public relations at Medical Center Health System said in a text message.

However, Wolkenfeld said he’s on call, so it’s always busy no matter what.

He noted that general surgery positions are mostly on the outskirts of cities or remote, but those jobs are out there.

“And there’s definitely a big need because a lot of the older surgeons are retiring and they’re having trouble replacing them because everybody’s subspecialized,” Wolkenfeld said.

He added that he feels it’s better not to be specialized, although there are pluses and minuses.

“I just like it because it gives you a variety and it kind of keeps you over a bigger space of anatomy …,” Wolkenfeld said.