A Toast To Robert Salley MD

By Nana Dadzie Ghansah

Surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists work in very close proximity. Their relationship is symbiotic. The surgeon hopes the person providing anesthesia can keep the patient still and alive so he/she can fix that fracture, replace that valve or get out that tumor. The anesthesia provider hopes the surgeon is good enough to get that lesion out or do that replacement without even more trauma to the patient.

In the process, we come to appreciate what each of us — surgeon and anesthesiologist — bring to the table.

For me as an anesthesiologist, watching some surgeons work is truly inspiring. Their good habits are worth studying, and at SJH in Lexington, KY, we have a number of them.

One of the very best of these surgeons is Robert Salley, a heart surgeon I greatly admire. As he steps off into retirement, I have asked myself what I have learnt from watching him work all these years. This past Tuesday, I was one of five physicians who had to toast him at an event and what I said was based on three things that I have learnt from watching him work since 2009. This essay expands on that very short toast and adds a fourth lesson.

The first is,

“Be excellent at what you do.”