When a patient consents to surgery, they're not just trusting their lives to a surgeon. They're trusting an entire team. 

An anesthesiologist must continually monitor sedation, respiratory and heart rate, blood pressure. A first assist suctions and retracts, helping with every suture and staple. A scrub tech organizes and hands over surgical tools, saving valuable seconds and blood spilled. And circulating nurses document the case, keeping track of who touches the patient, what's used and when. 

Every member of the team shares responsibility in the patient's survival. If someone's not there, you're in trouble. 

When something's been in your life for a long time, you can often forget it's there. 

Whether it's a person or a place, sometimes you can take it for granted. You never consider you won't walk in that door again or hear that voice. 

But yet it happens every day. People experience unexpected loss. 

And as impossible as it may seem, don't give up. 

You have to believe you'll find hope again.