Week 4 - Matters of the Heart

The ancient Egyptians once believed that the heart was the most important organ in the human body as it allegedly served as the location of the soul and the control center for the body. Since this ideology held so much weight, they would remove all major organs during mummification except for the heart. While the location of one’s soul is still debated, it was soon discovered that the organ in charge of consciousness and decision making is actually the brain. Today the heart still serves as an extremely important source of life and a figurative source of emotion - a concept made endlessly evident during my fourth week abroad. 

Tuesday was one of the days on this trip that I was most looking forward to. Having never shadowed a surgery before I was excited and nervous for my day at the German hospital. We met at the central bus station and traveled to the hospital together where we were directed to the locker rooms and we each got outfitted with scrubs, clogs, hair nets, and masks. When we walked through to the clean side (the surgical side) Dr. Wasser was waiting for us to help direct us to the right surgeries. As we stood in the hall waiting for everyone to finish changing I imagined what kind of surgery I would get assigned. My hope was something “tame” considering my shadowing experience to that point had only been clinical and I was worried if it was too intense too fast I’d throw up/pass out and then be the pre-med student that can’t handle it. That’s when Dr. Wasser pointed at Rachel, Elyssa, and I and said “you three, cardio.”

From there Elyssa and Rachel were sent to one pre-op room and Dr. Wasser brought me to another, speaking to the anesthesiologist in fluent German about how I was an American medical student here to shadow and that I spoke a little German (or at least I think that was what was said). To which she responded that she spoke a little English and then we all laughed, but I didn’t find it funny. I was then ushered into the pre-op room where I did my best to stay out of the way but still be able to see what was going on. I watched as the doctors communicated in German, working together in a choreographed manner as they anesthetized the patient and prepared to move her to the O.R. With me was a German medical student who was in his last few years of medical school, hoping to specialize in cardiology. Fortunately, he spoke some English and was able to communicate with me, making me feel less like a fly on the wall and more involved in the events taking place. I spent 5 or 6 hours in the operating room that day. From anesthetization to the last stitch in the patient’s heart - I was there for it, and I could handle it. In fact, I never felt queasy or uncomfortable but rather astonished that I was seeing a living person’s chest opened, heart stopped, valves repaired, and then heart restarted. It didn’t seem real, but it was simultaneously one of the most real experiences on this study abroad.

Aside from the amazing opportunity that Tuesday brought, week four was also heart centered because it was emotional. The relatively relaxed and routine schedule while being back in Boon coupled with being a little over halfway through the trip, I found myself missing things from back home.

For example:

• Quality time with my family

• My mom’s hugs

• The way my dad calls me sweetheart

• My brothers’ ability to roast me and genuinely listen to me in one conversation

• Laughs with my best friends 

• My very own bed that I can’t wait to just melt into 

• Tex-Mex food

• Target

• Sonic corndogs

• Running for fun (not because I’m about to miss the bus)

I wouldn’t necessarily say I was homesick, but I did start thinking about home more often and I did call and talk to family and friends more so than I had done in weeks prior (ie. for purposes other than needing help figuring out my annoying credit card issues). On top of this, our lectures for the week were over the very heavy topics of Nazi Euthanasia and the Nuremberg Doctors Trials. 

With the thoughts of home and the gravity of these class periods, class field trips were a welcome distraction. On Wednesday we went back to Cologne in the afternoon and those of us who had toured the zoo the last time got to go to the top of the Cologne Cathedral. There were several steps and secrets passageways taking us out alongside the flying buttresses of the structure but it was absolutely beautiful, especially if you didn’t look down. Afterwards we got to spend time in the city for the night but we must have all been feeling a little stretched thin because some drama went down when it was time to leave and lines were drawn. Fortunately things were resolved with a little communication the next morning, just in time for our trip to the Horst-Stoeckel Museum of the History of Anesthesia on Thursday afternoon. At the museum we got to meet Professor Stoeckel, the founder, and see his collection of numerous medical tools, which were displayed so as to show you the progression of anesthesiology over the years. The display ended with an iron lung and a complete twentieth century surgical room, bringing to life much of the historical topics we had been discussing in class. Instead of going straight home after the museum, I decided my best option was to stay busy in order to keep my mind off of home. So, I took a tram to the other side of Bonn to the Birkenstock Outlet Store and had a little retail therapy treatment. Then Friday we were back in class but Dr. Wasser must have realized how somber our lectures had been that week because the new topic was Diving Yogis and Meditating Seals - for which he showed a video of a baby seal and I may or may not have teared up. Despite the tears (which were definitely happy tears), the discussion of seals and their physiology that allows them to dive to great lengths was a positive and heart warming note to end on for the week, setting us up for another good travel weekend!

Sarah Bohac