hospital didn ’ t just earn her credibility , it taught her important lessons and skills she carries with her to this day .
“ It prepared me for seeing all types of patients . You need to treat the uninsured patients well - you must treat no one badly - because that ’ s what you ’ ll bring to a private practice . You must treat everyone equally well .”
While there was a disparity in income of patients she was seeing , she also noted a major gap in the type and amount of equipment she had to work with in her practice , versus the public institution . She recalled the scarce supplies she would see at the hospitals . “ Sometimes in those public hospitals , you had hardly any equipment . That was the rule , not the exception ,” she said . “ When you arrive , you see a table that says , ‘ Sutures of the day ’ and you have a certain allotment for the entire day , for all the procedures . It makes you be more malleable and adaptable to change , which was actually helpful since I needed to adapt so much , in coming to another country .”
After completing her plastic surgery residency in 2007 , Dr . Fensterer was still talking to the Louisville native from the French cheese cart , and she started planning for her future . While she hadn ’ t fully developed her practice , she was well known within the government institution and it was hard to leave that job because she was so well-respected . But the couple knew they wanted to be together , so she made a huge leap .
“ I never imagined I ’ d come to the US . I thought maybe I ’ d come to Disney because I ’ d never been . But to come here and be a doctor ? I never thought that would happen .” She moved to the US to join her husband Will Fensterer , and had to face her most difficult challenge yet .
“ When I came here , I had no idea what to do , I had to figure out how to become a doctor . There ’ s no book called ‘ How to Become a Doctor : For Dummies ’ so I had to figure it all out on my own .”
Her first step was to get back into the medical community , no matter what that looked like . She joined a research team at the University of Louisville and worked in a cardiac lab with rats , saying that not only was it hard to perform microsurgeries , but it was also challenging to learn to do new labs in a new country . While working in the lab , she met Dr . Joseph Banis , a plastic surgeon in town who has more than 40 years of experience , but at the time was working as the first fellow with Dr . Robert Acland , an anatomist considered a “ father of microsurgery .” She mentioned to him that if he ever needed a partner in the future , she would love to work with him . While completing her research , Dr . Fensterer earned her PhD in physiology and biophysics from UofL and applied for yet another general surgery residency , which she also completed at UofL .
“ It was very interesting to do another general surgery residency and it gave me appreciation and taught me to be more humble .” She said that also in just a few years , so much had changed within the
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Dr . Fensterer with her sister doing a hysterectomy and abdominoplasty together .
Dr . Fensterer with her husband Will when they met in 2005 .
Dr . Fensterer with her residency fellow , Vivian , in Brazil .
DR . WHO
MARCH 2021 37