Mahendra Samaru, M.D.

Why would a specialist in pain control park themselves in the high-rent corridor of 525 East 68th, when midtown elevators beckon every block south? Sure, the building hums with cardiac theatres and neonatal ICUs, but this anesthesiologist stakes a quieter flag two floors above the main lobby. From post-op spinals to labor epidurals, the slate of options reads like a menu for surgeons who want the OR silent, the patient still, and the next step predictable.

Between scheduled C-sections in the morning and a line of scheduled gall-bladder removals after lunch, they split days between three—or four—operating rooms each week. Cardiac cases roll in first, followed by large-joint arthroplasties and the occasional craniotomy that needs total stillness. Office-based procedures—trigger-point injections, intercostal nerve blocks—happen on Thursdays when the OR traffic thins and patients can park for half an hour without circling the block twice.

They keep things off the public gridiron: no same-day add-ons after 2 p.m., no last-minute scrambles when the epidural catheter kinks. If your surgeon needs spinal anaesthesia for a hip revision, they’ll pencil you in the week before; if labor hits early, the L&D team pages the on-call line at (212) 746-2962 and waits for the handoff.

Finding the hallway can feel like joining a backstage elevator ride—seventeenth floor, suite M-324, turn left past the vending machines. Drop a pin with the map before you head up; the buzzer won’t buzz twice for late arrivals.