Dr. Vernon Coleman recalls his first operation, an appendectomy, as a junior house surgeon. A story which was first published in 1972.

We were all waiting. The patient, already anaesthetised, was lying on the operating table. The anaesthetist, sitting at the head of the table, presiding like father at Sunday lunch, kept one eye on the machine by his side and the other on the patient. Two junior nurses were standing quietly behind the theatre sister. They'd tidied up the corner of the theatre where the sister and I had scrubbed and gowned.

The sister stood on one side of the operating table and I, the junior house surgeon, still wet behind the ears, stood on the other side. We were waiting for the surgeon who was going to perform the operation.

The patient had already been swabbed with antiseptic and, except for a small square of naked flesh, his whole body was covered with green, sterile towels.

Suddenly, the door to the theatre opened and the surgeon poked his head round it. "Sorry I'm late," he called. "I've got to see a patient in casualty." He nodded to me. "Would you mind starting without me? I'll be along when I can."