Week 7 - Emily

This week was a whirlwind of trying to wrap things up with my research, complemented by (finally) a chance to observe a pediatric cardiac surgery. The hospital's survey process meant that I couldn't go on labor rounds, but I had been waiting ALL SUMMER to see Dr Jonathan Chen operate and I had a special invitation from him to observe this past Tuesday, so I went. It was pretty incredible to see him work on such a small patient (he was seven), as well as to consider the implications of this surgery on the child. It was a follow-up Fontan procedure, meaning that the patient had been born with only one ventricle, instead of two, and an emergency surgery had been done right after he was born to bypass the non-existent right ventricle and allow the single ventricle to pump blood only to the body. Pulmonary flow was achieved only passively, but the operation raised his blood-oxygen levels to a manageable level by preventing mixing of oxygenated and unoxygenated blood. However, passive flow is a relatively unstable mechanism, since if the pressure in the lungs surpasses the systemic pressure, flow will stop entirely. To address this, the surgeon had inserted an "escape hatch" that would allow backwards flow to enter the heart instead of backing up the system entirely.

This surgery was a follow-up, because the patient had matured really well and Dr Chen felt that the escape hatch (which decreased his O2 levels) was no longer necessary. He had to open the heart, close the hatch, and clean up the area affected. It was pretty cool to watch, especially the cardiac bypass part.

My research wrapped up very well- I finished my poster in time to show it to my mentor. He was very happy with the result, which made me feel pretty good about the hard work I'd put in over the last crazy two weeks. Overall, the immersion term was a great experience and I'm glad I got to spend my summer in NYC, learning in a hospital environment and in a different lab. It's given my a fresh perspective on my research as well as a new appreciation for the advantages of our research technologies in Ithaca.