Soooo, I saw an open heart surgery today. Maybe it was more like an open chest surgery because the heart wasn't technically open. It was a coronary artery bypass graft. Which means, in very crude terms, that a blood vessel is harvested from somewhere else in the person's body and then the surgeon hooks it up to divert blood flow around the clogged part of one (or more) of the coronary arteries.
Either way, the point is that I saw a human's insides today. Not only that, I saw a HUMAN HEART. And it just kept on beat-beat-beating away all the way through the surgery.
I was, not surprisingly, dumbfounded. Awestruck. Speechless. But to the doctors and nurses on the cardiothoracic team, that's just another day at the office. I guess that's how it should be.
I had a fantastic view of the whole thing, right at the head of the table with the anesthesiologist. Everyone on the team was wonderful. The surgeon really took the time to explain things (and I'm standing there thinking, OH MY GOD he's holding a heart in his hands), asking me questions, quizzing me about anatomy, and that sort of thing.
And then I got lightheaded and had to sit on the floor. Twice.
After my second dizzy spell, I took a little break in the staff lounge. (BTW, it looks nothing like any of the staff lounges on "Grey's Anatomy." Neither did the OR for that matter.) I ate a little snack, had a cup of coffee, and took some deep breaths before heading back into the OR for round two.
The bummer? I missed the exciting part when they had to shock the heart back into a regular rhythm.
The good news? They were so proud of me for not fainting that they said I could come back anytime.
Go Robin!
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1 comment:
yay! that's so cool! i'm jealous.
i am also impressed with your not fainting. i almost fainted in the OR. like four times. one time one of the nurses actually had to rush over to hold me up. quite embarrassing.
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