Bad Oeynhausen

Open heart surgery...this was my first open heart surgery to observe and my best surgery experience yet. Ashley and I scrubbed in to watch a 62-year old woman receive a mitral valve replacement. After anesthesizing her, she was moved into the surgery room where she was sterilized and completely prepared for the surgery...pretty sure everyone knows the process. One of the coolest parts was getting to finally watch a surgeon cauterize the chest and saw open the sternum to expose the heart...all within a matter of minutes. Watching a beating heart is one of the most beautiful things a human could ever experience...and something that mechanically still remains a mystery for humans to successfully recreate long-term, which makes it even more of a miracle. After drenching the heart into a cold (5°C) potassium solution, we watched her slowly go into cardiac arrest so the atrium could be sliced open and the mitral valve replacement could begin. This was the long, tedious part of the surgery but the exciting part was the willingness of the anaesthesiologist who stood behind Ashley and I to not only allow us to stand in front of him the entire time but also his eagerness to help us understand what was going on. This was something I was not used to since the surgeon will usually do that instead. Nevertheless, we were so close to the patient that I felt like it was almost hands-on for us as well as the assistant physicians and the whole experienced reinforced for both Ashley and I, our calling to the field of medicine.