RIP Dr. Jeanne Petrek

Dr. Jeanne Petrek, 57, has died after being struck by an ambulance whose driver was blinded by the sun and failed to yield (the ambulance was not on emergency run).

A surgeon and researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in NYC, Dr. Petrek directly or indirectly touched the lives of millions of women stricken with breast cancer.

Petrek, the surgical director at the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center on E. 64th St., had nearly 200 published articles and was one of the nation's most sought-after speakers on breast cancer.

A high-energy, no-nonsense surgeon, Petrek, of Bronxville, Westchester County, was spearheading an innovative, 10-year federally funded study of premature menopause in breast cancer survivors. She became one of the first doctors to take an interest in cancer patients' long-term quality of life - now a hot research topic.

"She was interested in it way before it was popular to talk about," said Lindsay Beck, founder of New York's patient advocacy group Fertile Hope.

For any of us who will at some time have to face difficult decisions between quantity and quality of life, the choices we must make will be ever that much easier because of Dr. Petrek’s contributions to facilitating that dialogue between doctors and patients.