Day 3

Today I learned that technology isn't always so helpful...

Dr. Moore had a patient at Medical City Dallas, so I met him there this morning. When we entered the OR, his partner had already begun work making the initial incisions on our patient for the day - an older man with a history of heart disease who needed an aortic aneurysm repaired. This surgery was to be performed in a much less invasive manner (endovascularly) than the traditional route of an incision directly down the chest, cracking the ribs, etc... Two relatively small incisions are made on either side of the groin. A tube called a stent graft is then inserted through an artery up towards the aorta. Once in place, the tube is inflated and used to support the weakened wall of the aorta. Technologies such as X-Ray, angiogram, and ultrasound are vital to this procedure, which is where our troubles happened today. First, the machine that injected the contrast dye (for angiogram) wouldn't inject the dye. Surgery had to be completely stopped until the tech could go get another machine. Then the live X-Ray couldn't be focused on the area that the doctors needed to see. These mishaps only added to the tense feeling in the operating room. This surgery is very dangerous - if the aneurysm is to rupture, the patient could die within seconds.

I know that I really love medicine, but this project has shown me that I don't think surgery would be the specialty for me. These doctors have incredible attention to detail and patience - two qualities I would not characterize myself as having. Plus, they are pretty ambidextrous and I can barely even eat with my left hand :) So I think when I'm a doctor, I'll leave the surgeries to my colleagues and I'll handle the other stuff.