01/15/2026    Mark Wolpa, DPM

Lessons Learned From My First Time in the Operating Room (Howard Zlotoff, DPM)

After reading Dr. Zlotoff's memorable experience,
I was reminded of mine that I have not thought
about in many years, but still break out in a cold
sweat reliving it.

As a first year resident at the California
Podiatry Hospital in San Francisco we were
required to take call and stay overnight at the
hospital. Back in the days when dinosaurs roamed
the streets, patients having surgery checked into
the hospital the night before and we would work
them up before their surgery the next day. My
surgery schedule had me in the operating room with
an attending who was very generous with residents.
If the case was B/L, the resident was guaranteed
to do a foot. The case I would be scrubbing was a
B/L bunionectomy. This was at the beginning of my
program and I was very excited to add to my very
limited case numbers.

The night before the surgery I was called in the
middle of the night to deal with a patient in the
hospital and did not get back to my room until
early AM. I called the hospital operator to give
me a wakeup call at 6 AM so that I would have
plenty of time before surgery.

I remember rolling over, looking at my watch which
read 7:27 AM! I never got a wakeup call and I was
panicking running to the OR. The feeling I had was
worse than the feeling of passing a highway patrol
hiding in bushes on the road and watch them pull
out behind you in your rea view mirror, and then
turn on their red light! As I got to the sink to
start to scrub the attending was putting on the
stockinette and elevating the leg, that was
supposed to be my job.

I am staring into the room scrubbing harder as if
it would make the time pass quicker, when my eyes
met the attending and he unleashed a hot laser
stare that went right through me , he then shook
his head no.

I dropped my brush and went into the room , and in
the middle of apologizing and explaining that I
was up in the middle of the night dealing with a
hospital patient, he stopped me and calmly said,
"A 7:30 start time is not just a suggestion.

Have a nice day!"

I was crushed and walked out of the room only to
encounter my fellow residents who knew I was
scrubbing with the attending who loved residents,
and had to answer their question of “So how did it
go?”

Lesson learned. I was never late again.

Mark Wolpa, DPM, Palm Desert, CA

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