Tess  Murray-Torres, MD

Tess Murray-Torres, MD

Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology; Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellow, Class of 2019

Dr. Tess Murray-Torres completed her anesthesia residency and pediatric anesthesiology fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She subsequently completed an advanced pediatric cardiac anesthesia fellowship at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH. She joined the Division of Pediatric Anesthesiology at Washington University in 2020 as an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and a member of the cardiac anesthesia team at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. 

“During my anesthesia residency here at Washington University in St. Louis, I had the great fortune of experiencing firsthand the welcoming and invigorating environment of St. Louis Children’s Hospital. This environment is what drew me to pediatric anesthesia in the first place and what convinced me to pursue a career in this field. From the very first days of my training as a junior resident, I quickly appreciated the extent to which the faculty here are dedicated to achieving excellence in resident and fellow education and patient care. After a taste of a few “fellow-level” cases as a CA-2, I knew that pursuing my training here would expose me to a variety of challenging clinical pathologies and prepare me to independently manage the full spectrum of health and disease in pediatric patients. My experience to date in fellowship has confirmed all of my expectations from residency. My research as a resident focused on dissemination and implementation of novel technologies in the perioperative setting, in particular, I helped to develop a telemedicine-based decision support system for the operating room called the Anesthesiology Control Tower. As I begin a path towards further training in pediatric cardiac anesthesia, I am starting to explore clinical research related to topics such as intraoperative management of patients undergoing bilateral lung transplantation. Whatever a person’s clinical or academic interests may be, Washington University in St. Louis/St. Louis Children’s and the faculty here have the resources to help any trainee launch the career of their choosing. Having grown up in Minnesota, I have always appreciated the friendliness and atmosphere here in St. Louis. I completed medical school in Chicago, and I can appreciate a city such as St. Louis that manages to offer a broad range of activities without the traffic, the cost, and hectic pace common in some bigger cities. While many fellows live in the Central West End, my wife and I have a lovely home just a few miles south of the medical campus that suits all of our needs perfectly. Whatever our hobbies may be, from trail running to poetry, literature, and theater, St. Louis has always provided an abundance of opportunities that allow both of us to follow our passions.”