Heart Surgery

Today was one of the days I was looking forward to the most. We were able to go into the surgery room and watch open heart surgery. The patient I saw was 77 and having her aortic valve replaced. It was fascinating seeing the old valve which was calcified and the new valve which was actually a pig valve. Each flap comes from a different pig. Our anesthesiologist was extremely friendly and spoke to us in excellent English. I was amazed that he knew all the technical terms in both English and German. He explained what he was doing as he was doing it. I really like watching surgery. I saw a knee scoping while in high school and that was great. Now being able to see the heart beating in the patient was very powerful. It was also fun putting on scrubs. I'm glad I got a picture in them. I hope it is a flash into the future :-).

We then went to the ICU and saw some patients there. They were all elderly and had had complications with their cardiac surgery. The most amazing and yet difficult thing for me to see was one lady in the ICU who had a zip in her chest so she could be opened up very quickly. It was a REAL zipper, like you have on your pants. It was extremely strange to see. It made her almost look like a doll because it was hard to fathom that there was a real person with a zip on her chest.

I really liked Bonn, or the parts we saw of it. We had a nice lunch and it was funny having lunch with half the table enjoying a beer. We met some students from A&M who were here for the Engineering program and I must say I am glad I am on this program. The engineering program was very regimented with tests and quizzes and lecture time. I am glad we are able to go out and learn first hand instead of learning in a classroom which we could do for cheaper in Texas.

Yesterday was not so fun because I went to the airport to talk to Lufthansa about my damaged luggage. We had faxed them but we were just having trouble talking to people who knew what I wa ssuppsoed to do. I missed what sounds like an interesting night at a bar, but I'll get over it. I am just glad my luggage is finally getting assessed and hopefully I will find out soon what is going to happen. I really have had bad luck with luggage. My main suitcase was broken on the plane and then my small backpack for day trips broke while we were in Heidelberg. Hopefully I no more problems because I am running out of bags.