My reflection on Cardiac Surgery
It has now been almost a week since I was a 2nd assistant in a Triple Bypass Surgery. As some can imagine I was in awe for the following days and decided to wait a few days before writing about it but here goes....
First, the feeling of holding a human heart that is beating 80 beats per minute in your hand while you search for the coronary arteries is one that can not be explained in words. I entered the operating theatre at 9 o´clock, the head surgeon had already started a littel before that. Entering surgery is quite the ritual where scrubbing, gowning, taking the gloves always gives me that special feeling much like the reminder that what you are doing is something special and there is no room for mistake. Maybe that is just the feeling you should have in a cardiac surgery which has to be considered a high risk surgery.
This was the first time I had been in the theatre with this team and I was an unknown face. So in the beginning every movement I made I was led by the scrub nurse grabing my hands and leading me to my spot every time. Once I was able get comfortable and show that I knew my way around the room is started to get more leadway and more involved in the operation.
I did not expect to be doing any thing but observing, initial reason I was there to beging with was to see how the graft preparation was done. Before I knew it I had all fingers wrapped around the ventricles reflecting it cranially while the head surgeon mapped out the coronaries and spotted the location of the bypasses.
Canules were entered to the right atrium and ascending aorta, then the heart was stopped. This amazing muscular structure that beats 70 times per minute, has its own pace maker and pumps 4-5 Liters per minute was now just lying there in the chest cavity like a deflated balloon.
Another one of those moments where I had to pinch myself to make sure this was really happening. It sure was the heart/lung machine had taken over. The first assistant had entered by that time and they begun to connect the grafts. I before 3 weeks ago believed this to be impossible, but I stood there and watched as they performed the vascular surgery. I with my young eyes could even see clearly the stiches being made. It didn´t hurt that the previous week I myself had performed a small bowel anastamosis using a very similar technique.
I skipped my classes this day because I was not going anywhere until this operation was done with. My curiosity and extreme level of alertness made this the most educational and eventful day of this semester. 4 hours later I tore of the latex gloves and walked out into the rain feeling like a million dollars.
Truly an amazing experience and I feel that I am one gargantuan step closer to being a doctor.
2nd assistant,
róbert mar
First, the feeling of holding a human heart that is beating 80 beats per minute in your hand while you search for the coronary arteries is one that can not be explained in words. I entered the operating theatre at 9 o´clock, the head surgeon had already started a littel before that. Entering surgery is quite the ritual where scrubbing, gowning, taking the gloves always gives me that special feeling much like the reminder that what you are doing is something special and there is no room for mistake. Maybe that is just the feeling you should have in a cardiac surgery which has to be considered a high risk surgery.
This was the first time I had been in the theatre with this team and I was an unknown face. So in the beginning every movement I made I was led by the scrub nurse grabing my hands and leading me to my spot every time. Once I was able get comfortable and show that I knew my way around the room is started to get more leadway and more involved in the operation.
I did not expect to be doing any thing but observing, initial reason I was there to beging with was to see how the graft preparation was done. Before I knew it I had all fingers wrapped around the ventricles reflecting it cranially while the head surgeon mapped out the coronaries and spotted the location of the bypasses.
Canules were entered to the right atrium and ascending aorta, then the heart was stopped. This amazing muscular structure that beats 70 times per minute, has its own pace maker and pumps 4-5 Liters per minute was now just lying there in the chest cavity like a deflated balloon.
Another one of those moments where I had to pinch myself to make sure this was really happening. It sure was the heart/lung machine had taken over. The first assistant had entered by that time and they begun to connect the grafts. I before 3 weeks ago believed this to be impossible, but I stood there and watched as they performed the vascular surgery. I with my young eyes could even see clearly the stiches being made. It didn´t hurt that the previous week I myself had performed a small bowel anastamosis using a very similar technique.
I skipped my classes this day because I was not going anywhere until this operation was done with. My curiosity and extreme level of alertness made this the most educational and eventful day of this semester. 4 hours later I tore of the latex gloves and walked out into the rain feeling like a million dollars.
Truly an amazing experience and I feel that I am one gargantuan step closer to being a doctor.
2nd assistant,
róbert mar
posted by robert mar at 09:41
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