With the hospital under inspection this week, my last week in nyc was the most uneventful. I was luckily able to see Dr. Girardi perform an open heart cardiac surgeries. The patient’s chest and sternum were cut through in order to access the heart and repair the patient’s failing mitral valve. The fellow’s induced cardiac arrest with paddles and the bypass technicians were all over their machines, perfusing the patient’s body with blood, while his heart was unable to do it for him. Since it was essentially a valve surgery not much was visible to the viewer during the operation but it was still a great experience. The anesthesiologist allowed us to stand on a stool and peer over the curtain above the patient’s head, down into her chest. Once a supportive device was placed in the patient, he was closed up and the patients vitals were carefully monitored as he was taken off bypass and his heart was started up again.
Other than this one surgery much time was spent in lab making sure my project wrapped up nicely. I seeded one of my vessel networks in gel and found that water could in fact be injected at one end and come out the other, so the vessel network was a success. I injected Berlex Magnevist to help obtain images of the network itself. We tried to get MRI images but these images were largely unclear and new prep methods were devised.
Overall, I really enjoyed my summer immersion experience and am looking forward to future collaborations with Weill Cornell.
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