For a young woman cut off from the world, a series of risky operations offers hope of ending her isolation. For the surgeons, it's the supreme test. When the nurses wheeled Ana Rodarte into the operating room at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, she was already dopey from the sedative she'd been given in pre-op. A heart monitor began to capture her drowsy rhythms. The anesthesiologist covered her mouth with a ventilator, and as she breathed in a mixture of oxygen, nitrogen and anesthetic, the world disappeared. In the long hallway outside, Munish Batra washed up. He had stayed...