Twenty-six years after graduating from Eastern, Dr. Sean Sharkey specializes in anesthesiology and visits fifty operating rooms in a typical day.
For nine years, Sharkey has held the position of vice president of the Anesthesia Associates of Lancaster, a group consisting of thirty-five anesthesiologists. The group covers all of the hospitals of Lancaster General Hospital. Sharkey specializes in cardiac anesthesia and obstetrical anesthesia.
“It’s a real variety of patients I deal with every day,” Sharkey said, emphasizing that he enjoys meeting the patients, who are trusting him with their lives. He covers all types of anesthesia, including open heart, deliveries, and pediatrics. “Today, I ran the orthopedic hospital and we did probably twenty-five knee replacements,” he said.
Sharkey is married and has two children, a son named Sean who is a high school junior, and a daughter named Kylie who is a high school first-year.
“I met my wife at Eastern when I was a senior lab assistant for microbiology and she was a student,” Sharkey said. “She was taking college classes for nursing school.”
At the time, Sharkey’s future wife, Josslyn, was in nursing school at Lankenau Hospital and taking classes such as anatomy and microbiology at Eastern. The couple were married in 1988, several years after meeting.
Sharkey, who commuted to Eastern, found time to be a senator of SGA, an organic chemistry tutor, a lab assistant for microbiology and a member of the science honors society, Sigma Zeta.
“The things I remember most were the professors I had there (at Eastern),” Sharkey said, mentioning biology professors Dr. Marvin Meyers, Dr. Joseph Sheldon, and others.
When asked what he appreciated most about his education at Eastern, Sharkey said, “The professors, very small classes, and the different relationships I had with professors. I think it made a difference.”
Following Eastern, Sharkey attended the Medical College of Pennsylvania, did his residency at Thomas Jefferson University, and his fellowship in cardiac and obstetrical anesthesia. He was assistant clinical professor at Jefferson for two years. Moving from the Philadelphia area to Lancaster, he started a heart program at St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he worked for 7 years. Following this position, he obtained his current position with Lancaster General Hospital.
“The college (Eastern) certainly set a good foundation for me,” Sharkey said. “I think Eastern was a great college and I have good memories from there.”