To the patient, any operation is momentous.

And I start off every morning dedicating it to our Creator.

To the patient, any operation is momentous.

I tell [medical students] that they are the luckiest persons on earth to be in medical school, and to forget all this worry about H.M.O.'s and keep your eye on helping the patient. It's the best time ever to be a doctor because you can heal and treat conditions that were untreatable even a couple of years ago.

I wanted to be a surgeon, possibly influenced by the qualities of our family doctor who cared for our childhood ailments.

One of my surgical giant friends had in his operating room a sign "If the operation is difficult, you aren't doing it right." What he meant was, you have to plan every operation You cannot ever be casual You have to realize that any operation is a potential fatality.

Its the best time ever to be a doctor because you can heal and treat conditions that were untreatable even a few years ago.