So if you've been sitting on the edge of you're chair waiting for another blog post (which I pray is no one), or if you just have nothing better to read at work (I'm talking about you Lauren Barry) or you just love me (Mom) than you may have noticed I haven't updated this in quite sometime.
Im still alive.
Hope that cleared up some of the confusion. Also my lack of writing has nothing to do with me not having enough things to write about. In fact quite the contrary, I have been too busy to write! In the small amount of time I've had to write I couldn't decide where to start because I had TOO many things to write about.
That is also a disclaimer (excuse) for the poorly organized post that Im about to write. Its sort of the shotgun method of story telling.
My experience at the hospital has been amazing. The amount of access Ive been given is astounding and borderline concerning. When I got my ID card I went to the security office and on my form there was nothing underneath the column labeled: ACCESSES. This indicated I was not allowed to get access to any specifically protected area, something thats makes a lot of sense as I have zero qualifications what so ever (well I am American Red cross certified to perform CPR. No big deal)
Upon getting my ID card the head of security, and I really don't want to get anyone in trouble here, when looking at my form said,
"Well thats not going to allow you to see much, why don't we give you access to the theaters (operating rooms) and the wards"
I didn't not find any objection though I have a suspicion a few lawyers might.
As far as access once in the theaters (there is no stadium seating, its just what they call an OR) has been amazing. I have seen such a wide range of procedures.
I spent a week in the cath-lab watching minimally invasive cardiac procedures. Basically they stick a guide wire up your leg and into your aorta and with the aid of real time video X-ray, can inject contrast stains to visualize the arteries supplying blood to the heart.
They can also do procedures this way. The most common procedure is a stinting, where they basically stick a spring loaded cage into an narrowed artery (up through the femoral artery in your leg) and pop it open (in turn popping open the artery). Its a pretty slick and quick little trick when your heart is sick...( I didn't mean for that all to rhyme) I guess thats what it would be like if you had the world famous cardiologist Dr. Seuss ('After thoroughly studying your angio-gram, you need to lay off the green eggs and ham')
Maybe I do have too much time.
The things they are able to do are really amazing. They do another procedure that is essentially a roto-rooter. They put a special wire up your leg and down into a narrowing artery that spins at a few thousand rpms. It is specially coated to cut through hardened calcium but when it touches the endothelium of the artery it doesn't cut (sort of like a plaster cast saw). All the procedures I saw went very well but I did get to witness a little bit of drama that would do well in ER, or Greys anatomy.
The X-ray technician in the lab I was watching has been doing these procedures for about 45 years. Although he is not a doctor he knows ALOT about these procedures. It was very common for the cardiologist to ask his opinion about where to place a stint and what catheter to use ect. Once while placing a stint the X-ray tech started to shout to the doctor that the stint was not being placed right.
They began to argue a bit, but the x-ray tech finally settled down and just as the stint was placed, it dissected. More argument erupted as the tech mentioned that it was exactly what he said was going to happen, and the assistant cardiologist was getting frustrated with both of them and suddenly the patient went into cardiac arrest. It was not the fault of neglect because of the argument, but because of thrombosis from the poorly placed stint.
The place suddenly got very organized as they tried to take a balloon catheter to open the stint wider, but this was unsuccessful. They started right away doing CPR. Within a few minutes, just about every cardiologist and cardiac surgeon was in the room, as a few of them took turns giving very extensive CPR. Its a little strange to see CPR because you have a tendency to think that if youre in a hospital there is something more they can do, but apart from immediate bypass surgery (which is a nearly impossible battle against the clock) there really isnt much.
It was a very somber sort of room, everyone seemed pretty moved which also surprised me. I would think that doctors are typically not strangers to death but everyone was pretty effected, and one of the nurses was even crying. After a few minutes they set a timer on the wall, four minutes. If they couldn't get her heart beating in four minutes they would stop. The four minutes ticked away and some argued there was no point in trying that long, while other argued to try longer. But the time ran out, she was taken away and there was a brief sort of moment where everyone worked in silence or sort of looked at the ground quietly, not really out of remorse but out of respect, and then the next case came in.
Everyone sort of took a deep breath and it was back to business as usual. The talk became very practical: what exactly went wrong, what was unavoidable and what was avoidable. Not to place blame but for practical data collection sort of purposes. The crowd dispersed and people were smiling and carrying on, discussing hospital policy or the Tour de France.
Also this last week I had the opportunity to scrub in on a triple bypass aortic valve replacement surgery. It was amazing and certainly of questionable legality. I got to poke around at the heart, feel the aorta diastolicly and systolicly, squeeze diseased arteries and generally cop a feel. It was fantastic, I had sort of a giddy smile on my face. It was great, and the patient survived despite my poking around. Phew!
On the non-hospital side of things ive been having a blast. I suddenly have too many friends here to keep track of. All of the international students have descended the university where I am staying so ive been meeting people from all over the world. Also ive been able to sneak the free dinners that are provided for them.
The other night at dinner I was sitting with a Mexican, two Norwegian Girls, a Dutch Girl, two French guys and a guy from Vietnam. We were all sitting around talking about this and that until I realized I was the only native English speaker. There was something cool about all of us sitting around talking in the sort of universal language communicating with each other from all over the world (there was also something pathetic about the fact that I was the only person at the table that wasnt fully (at least) bilingual).
I went out with some of my friends, which includes an Irish girl who is the most prolific and skilled curser I've ever met in my life and was walking from bar to bar until I ran into Nate Fritz. That may sound like nothing if you don't know Nate Fritz like I have since I was about 11 years old. We both stared at each other for at least ten seconds in a sort of disbelief. It really is the most 'small world' sort of encounter I've ever had.
In other Christopher Chapman news ive been playing lacrosse with the University team, I am going skiing tomorrow and I leave to travel the country next Saturday.
The aussie word of the day: "arvo" Its an abbreviation for afternoon. I know what you're thinking, exactly what I thought, "But theres no 'V' in afternoon?" I guess when it comes to 'abbrevs' in the southern hemisphere, like sun tanning at Christmas or skiing in July, it doesn't make sense.
