"Anesthesiologist John Bonica faced one of those life-threatening scenarios when his wife, Emma, gave birth to their first child in 1943. Aware that anesthesiologists avoided obstetrics, Bonica personally trained the chief obstetric resident at St. Vincent's in New York in anticipation of Emma's labor. When she was ready to deliver, the chief resident was performing a cesarean section. ...To his dismay, Bonica discovered that the obstetrician wanted to avoid anesthesia. ...But even this wary doctor believed that a small amount of ether was necessary... The nervous intern... administered too much ether too quickly. ...Bonica pushed the intern aside and stepped in to save the lives of his wife and baby. From that unsettling moment on, the development of safe obstetric anesthesia was all-important to Bonica."