Patient wait finally ends for future docs

The symptoms were clear: sweaty hands, shortness of breath and -- in some cases -- nausea.

But these weren't your classic anxiety patients. They were fourth-year medical students at Stony Brook University about to open envelopes containing the name of the hospital residency program they'll call home for the next three years.

"I think the average pulse rate right now for the class of 2011 is . . . definitely higher than resting," joked Dr. Kenneth Kaushansky, the medical school dean, as he addressed the 114 students and their families gathered at the health sciences center Thursday.

The students joined 26,000 peers from across the country for Match Day, an annual event that's often considered the most important day in the life of a budding doctor.

"You open yours first," Emily Levin told her fiance, Mitch Weiser.

"No, you go," he insisted.

Levin, 29, a Stony Brook native, grew up near the Stony Brook campus. She and Weiser, 28, of Pleasantville, N.Y., met in med school, got engaged and were hoping to get placed at the same hospital -- or at least the same city.

Both were vying for competitive specialty programs. She wanted anesthesiology; he hoped for orthopedic surgery.

Hands shaking, they opened their envelopes to find out they'll be together at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.

Their eyes lit up. Then they kissed as though it were their wedding day.

"This has been a long time in the making," Levin said. "Our hearts were definitely jumping there."

Levin, a graduate of Ward Melville High School, also brings a valuable life experience to her career.

While attending Washington University in St. Louis, she was hit by a city bus while inline skating in a park. She was hospitalized for three months and required 20 surgeries and months of physical therapy.

"I know what it feels like to be on an operating room table," she said. "I've had good doctors and I've had bad doctors. It's the little things like smiling and holding a patient's hand I will be more conscious about."

Eric Norman, 30, of Brooklyn, is also a patient turned doctor.

As an undergrad, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Five years later, as he was deciding on a career path, his cancer returned, and he went through another round of chemotherapy, this time with a lifesaving stem cell transplant.

Now he'll be a resident in the pediatrics department at Winthrop-University Hospital.

"I'm so excited," he said. "This is the culmination of hard work and so much more."