In the operating room, Phoebe General Surgeon Dr. Jason Langer is meticulous and detail-oriented.  As the physician in the region with the most experience using the da Vinci robotic surgical system, he deftly maneuvers the system’s robotic arms, performing delicate minimially-invasive procedures that significantly improve – or save – the lives of his patients.

Away from the hospital, he uses those same steady hands and eye for detail to craft miniature characters for Warhammer 40,000, a game popular worldwide in which players enact battles using models of warriors and fighting vehicles.

“It involves small-scale models that you actually build and paint yourself.  The game is kind of a combination of Risk, chess and Dungeons and Dragons.  You can create a backstory for your army that you’re moving around the table,” Dr. Langer said.  “I’ve gotten to travel to events around the country to play the game, and I’ve met some incredible people from all around the world.”

Now, Dr. Langer is combining his gaming passion with his professional passion.  This Saturday, he’ll kick off a 24-hour marathon game of Warhammer 40,000 as part of Children’s Miracle Network’s (CMN) Extra Life campaign that encourages gamers, creators, artists and other passionate individuals to support their local communities.  November 2 is Extra Life Game Day, the campaign’s main annual event when participants play games to raise money to help neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and pediatric patients at CMN hospitals.

“Extra Life melds my hobby world and my work world, so I get to play a game that I use as part of my escape, and I’m able to raise money for CMN for local patients to help our miracle babies at Phoebe,” Dr. Langer said.

He got involved with Extra Life a few years ago and played video games on Game Day two years ago.  Last year, he collected donations from his Warhammer friends, but this year he’s going all out, lining up about 10 of his Warhammer enthusiast friends to take part in a 24-hour game.

“We’ll basically be using every model we have.  I’ll probably have close to 500 models myself that I’ll be playing with.  Each player will have plenty of time for breaks, but there will be action going on at all times,” Dr. Langer said.

Dr. Langer will be playing at The Nerd Store in Hunters Mill Shopping Center at 2610 Dawson Road in Albany beginning at noon on Saturday and will stream the game live on Twitch.

“The Nerd Store is a great place for the gaming community.  As soon as I talked to the owner about this, he said, ‘please do it here.’  He was super excited and willing to support this.  I hope people will come by and watch in person, and they can donate from the Extra Life page as well.”

Dr. Langer set a personal goal of raising $5,000 and team goal of $6,000.  “I think with support from the community, we can reach that goal,” he said.

All of that money will stay at Phoebe to support programs and services for local pediatric and NICU patients.  You can visit www.extra-life.org/participant/JasonLanger to make a donation and to watch the livestream of Dr. Langer’s game.