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He completed medical school in Heidelberg, and a surgical residency at the Park Hospital long before "New York" was added to its name. For thirty years he was considered the leading local private surgeon, gathering immense influence and wealth. The showpiece of his wealth was an oceanfront mansion and a large boat on the tip of the Island. This was where Dr. Mantzur used to escape each Friday night after a strenuous operating week, far from his dying patients and their anxious families. It was common knowledge among residents that during long weekends and holidays old Mantzur was unavailable. Emergencies, true or otherwise, had to wait until Monday.

The second surgeon in the ruling triumvirate at the New York Park Hospital was Dr. Mahmud Sorki. Sorki, son of a Persian Ayatollah, studied medicine in Iran and trained in surgery at the Park under Mantzur's wings. He married a local Italian nurse and established himself in private practice. A real "cowboy" surgeon, for many years he was considered the "top knife" by the hospital medical community. He, too, became immensely rich.

The third in the triumvirate was Dr. Herb Susman, the only real American in the leading group. He was a half Jew born and bred in Brooklyn. As a graduate of a Caribbean medical school he completed an Internal Medicine residency in the Park where he met and bonded with Sorki. Energetic despite his immense size, Susman became a Clinical Professor of Medicine with two publications on his curriculum vitae.

He and Sorki, both in their late fifties were as close as brothers and socialized together at top Manhattan restaurants and Bahamas casinos, with women in Atlantic City, sharing jokes, loud laughter and a lot of booze. Their old mentor, Mantzur, a widower, did not drink, did not look at women and did not overeat. Always calm, controlled and poker faced, he was the gray eminence of the New York Park and, as I would soon learn, my true nemesis.