1 post tagged “craniotomy”
Seeing a "live" brain up close was definitely something when I first scrubbed in a craniotomy, but the feeling was nothing compared to holding a live, pumping heart in my hands. I could have hugged the surgeon who asked me to keep my hand on the heart and wait until it came back to life, so to speak, after coming off bypass. Every single day that I worked in the Cardiovascular Surgery department I was trying to be cool about it, taking it all in just like it was all part of the job. But with a heart in my hands I let the geekiness get to me. Beneath my face mask I was smiling until the end of the procedure.
I remember another time when I was on call and I woke up at 2 in the morning as the cardiovascular fellows and an attending burst through the swinging doors of the operating complex. A post-op patient's tube draining fluid from the chest had suddenly filled up with blood and while still in the surgical ICU the surgeons had opened his chest to see a hole in the aorta spurting out blood with every beat of the heart. Even the anesthesiologist marveled at the state of the patient. With an open chest and an aorta clamped to stop from bleeding, it was a wonder to see a conscious and coherent patient. The patient was immediately brought to an operating room, inducted with anesthesia as the surgeons scrubbed up to begin a life-saving procedure.
Yes, I do miss scrubbing in open heart surgeries.
