A day at the hospital

Today was the most exciting day of the trip so far. We visited a hospital where we were able to observe whatever surgeries were being conducted. This would be a unique experience because instead of being in surgical observation domes we were able to be right above the surgeon, only about a foot away from his skilled hands. I was especially fortunate because instead of just a bypass surgery which is fairly common, I was able to observe the implantation of a left ventricular assist device. i got to see a surgery today
i got really lucky cuz usualy its just a bypass, but today i got to see the implantation of a left ventricular assist device. The pump was an intracorpeal Heartware pump. The inflow conduit attaches to the left ventricle and the pump helps the weakened ventricle circulate the blood by propelling it through to the aorta. I was already familiar with this pump because it is one of the ones we do post explantation pathological analysis on in the lab I work in back at A&M. It was cool to see the implantation and installation of the device instead of just the post explantation analysis. Throughout the procedure I stood next to the anasthesiologist, until the patient was on pulmonary bypass and hsi job was essentaially done. I was able to ask the assisting surgeon good questions throughout the procedure, as my knowledge of medicine allowed to to generate at least a slightly intuitive understanding of what they were doing throughout the procedure. I was also able to throw around key words that implied at least a basic understanding of the physiology behind the procedure and they seemed to appreciate that. The surgeon performing the procedure was very skilled, and uppon hearing my comment abou this the assistin surgeon told me that this surgeon has performed more heart assit devices than anyone in the world...about 800. Obviously an irreplacable experience. At one point the heart stopped beating and they had to get these mini defibrillators and shock it back to its regular rhythm. After the surgeries we got a guided tour of the heart pump wards and got to see some extracorpeal heart pumps at work in live patients. We also got to see the clinical MRI machine used in the hospital along with a brief summary of the theory behind it. I was really surprised at the friendliness and willingness of the doctors to take the time to entertain and teach these foreign americans. There are not many hospitals in the US that would allow students to experience what we did.