There she is ... Physician vies for Miss America

Miss Wisconsin, an aspiring pediatrician, is promoting organ and tissue donation.

By Damon Adams, amednews staff. Sept. 8, 2003.

For most of her life, Tina Sauerhammer, MD, 22, has been ahead of the curve.

She started to play the cello at age 3. And while most of her peers were heading to high school, the Green Bay, Wis., native became a college freshman -- at age 14.

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At 18, she graduated from college. At 22, she finished medical school.

Now, for the first time in a long time, she is going up against people her own age. As Miss Wisconsin, Dr. Sauerhammer is competing this month for the Miss America title.

She is the only physician in this year's event, and the Miss America Organization said she is only the second physician to compete for the tiara, following Carrie Lee Davis, MD, Miss South Carolina 1992.

"With me being a physician, I've really put a different face on the Miss America Organization. For so many years, Miss America was thought of as being a beauty pageant," said Dr. Sauerhammer. "When [pageant critics] see people with [my] credentials competing for Miss America, it makes them take a second look and question what this is about. It's not about beauty. It's about scholarships for women."

Only 1 other physician has competed for the Miss America title.

If she wins the crown, Dr. Sauerhammer says she plans to spend her title year as the first physician Miss America promoting a platform near to her heart: organ and tissue donation.

Her father, Randall, had an autoimmune disease and died last year while waiting for a kidney transplant.

Two years ago, Dr. Sauerhammer was competing in the Miss Wisconsin contest in Oshkosh, and her parents traveled to see her. Back home in Green Bay, her parents' phone rang. A kidney was available.

Her father didn't have a pager because the organ program said he did not need one. The family didn't think he was close to getting a match. By the time the Sauerhammers got the message, it was too late.

Dr. Sauerhammer hopes her involvement in Miss America will raise awareness about organ donations.

"As a medical doctor, I can work within the system," she said.

Not another Doogie Howser

Some view her as a child prodigy. She did so well in school that a teacher recommended she skip high school. At age 14, she entered the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

She made honor societies and graduated at 18. She then went to the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison, where she heard comparisons to "Doogie Howser, MD," the '90s television program about a teenage doctor.

Miss Wisconsin is a physician.

"I really don't think of myself as any smarter than the next person. All I know is that I work hard. Everything I have today, I worked for," she said.

Competing in pageants made sense as a way to trim the $120,000 cost of her medical school education because many pageants offer scholarship money. She graduated from medical school in May at age 22.

"Honestly, when people say doctor, I sort of look in the other direction still," she said with a laugh.

In June, she won the Miss Wisconsin title. She postponed residency to pursue the Miss America crown and spends her days making appearances in Wisconsin and preparing for when Miss America is named, on Sept. 20.

When her pageant days are over, Dr. Sauerhammer hopes to continue working toward her goal of becoming a pediatric surgeon, practicing in the Midwest and raising a family.

"She'll be wonderful. She's very good with children and she's very good with families," said Dennis Lund, MD, one of her instructors and chief surgeon at the University of Wisconsin Children's Hospital in Madison.

For now, Dr. Sauerhammer is focusing on Miss America.

"This is something that I want so much," she said. "It's in God's hands. All I can do is my best."