Confessions of a Park Avenue Plastic Surgeon

After three thrilling, exhausting, mind-bending years at Stanford, I came east for another residency, this one specializing in plastic surgery, at the Cornell and New York Hospital, another world-renowned institution. In North Carolina I'd learned to be a doctor, in California a surgeon. In New York, I would learn to be a plastic surgeon.

At New York Hospital, I learned an enormous amount - about different types of face-lifts, about rhinoplasties, about dealing with burns. At Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, one of my last rotations, I did reconstructive surgery on cancer patients. As a surgeon doing that kind of work your mind-set is very different from what it is when you do cosmetic work. You're not worried at all about scars. Instead, you're doing things like repairing large defects and covering chest holes. You're happy if the patient is just able to leave the hospital alive.

I also learned who some of the good guys in New York medicine were, and who were the bad guys.

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