I saw an open heart surgery!!!

Yesterday we went to Bad Oeynhausan and to the HDZ, the local hospital that specializes in cardio and throacic surgery. We were welcomed by Dr. Mirow and Frau Traut, and then led us to the big moment I had been waiting for this whole trip-- the open heart surgery! I scrubed out and observed a bypass surgery. It was amaying. The doctors were really nice and they let me stand like two feet away from the beating heart! I also watched the doctors cut out a vein from the patients leg to use in the bypass. That part was a little disgusting to watch, I must admit. At one point there were seven huge clamps (shaped like scissors) hanging off of the patient's leg. And the vein they cut off was really long! But anyways, I absolutely loved watching the surgery, with the beating heart and everything. The only problem that I had was my face mask, two hairnets, and thick scrubs were making me very, very hot, and the fact that I was already severly dehydrated from this trip in general, I felt like I was about to pass out. I excused myself, rushed to the dressing room and drank some water to recover. I waited about ten minutes before returning to the surgery. I had passed out from heat exhaustion before, so luckily I knew the signs that I was experiencing so it wouldn't turn into a bad experience! For the record, to get out of the surgery room I used the excuse that my back was hurting and I needed to sit down, which also was true as well, haha. I just didn't want to look like a wimp in front of all the professional doctors! One thing I do know though is that I do not want to do surgery. I just like watching it!

After the surgery, we toured the VAD ward and learned about the latest artificial hearts. We then toured the ICU where we saw patients that had been in the hospital for a couple months to several years! It was depressing. After that we went inside the MRI room! That was also one of my favorites. I got to see how strong the magnetic field of the machine was by pulling a sheet of aluminum away from it! Seeing as aluminum is non-magnetic, it was actually hard to pull it away! That turned out the be the final activity of the day and we headed back to Hannover. What a day. I will remember this forever!