During my surgery training at NYU, I had the opportunity to help a young woman take a big, brave step toward saving her life.

It was 2008. I was 28 years old and so was my new patient.

I met her in an area of NYU Langone Medical Center that we called Day Surgery. It was a wing of the hospital that was bright and spacious (unlike the vast majority of the Center). The staff was friendly and light-hearted. And we residents loved the rotation.

Patients came in from home. They were mostly healthy and were either having an elective (as in optional) operation or a brief and straight-forward one. The vast majority of these patients went home on the day of surgery. Hence, it was called Day Surgery. 

Day Surgery was full of breast surgery - breast reductions and breast implants but also biopsies, lumpectomies and mastectomies. 

The first case of the day is at 7:30 AM and I met my 28 year-old patient just before the operating room was ready. Before walking into her pre-op room, I read her ch...