>> mangum rick, alabama. -- montgomery, alabama. went to medical school at the university of alabama in birmingham. >> when did the hard part of this coming to your life -- the heart part of this come into your life? >> jon kirkland was one of the world's greatest cardiac surgeons. party hacks surgery -- cardiac surgery was where i got to see heart surgery for the first time and when i began my surgery training, i did an internship. one thing i rotated through was cardiac surgery and dr. kirkland was my mentor. it was a brutal six weeks of very little sleep and hard work. but when you finished it, you felt like you were going through marine boot camp, you are proud of what you did. when i finished, dr. kirkland put his arm around my shoulder and said that you ought to consider doing this. from that moment on, even though my stepfather was a general surgeon and we always talk about me doing that, after that, i was cardiac all the way. >> win was the first time -- when was the first time you open the chest and where was it? >> it take