Dr. Mendes shares stories from her career as a vascular surgeon, mentioning her early years, educational and training choices, her clinical research on venous disease in African Americans, and her time at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center

This oral history interview with Robert Nabatoff, MD was conducted by Arthur Aufses, Jr., MD on January 14, 1998. Lily Leopold Saint, a research assistant, and Robert Litwak, MD, the former Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital, were also present.

The interview begins with Dr. Nabatoff discussing his undergraduate and medical education and his early career. Dr. Nabatoff performed some of the earliest major vascular and cardiac surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital. He discusses the development of portacaval shunts, local anesthesia through a mitral commissurotomy, and mitral valve operations.

He also discusses how he began to perform varicose vein surgery, of which he performed more than 8,000 during his career. He is credited with making the procedure an outpatient surgery after negotiating between Blue Cross and Mount Sinai. He also talks about his other professional accomplishments, including his extensive publications and the development of a number of novel vein strippers.

The interview also includes more personal topics, such as his world travels, his early childhood and family in Harlem, what drew him to Mount Sinai, and the rarity of Jewish doctors practicing surgery in the 1930s and 1940s. He also discusses Mount Sinai Hospital's strength in treating putrid lung abscesses during that time.