Today, we had the amazing opportunity to speak with Dr. Dienst via Skype. He currently works in the ICU of a hospital in Florida. We all wrote questions to ask him including his experiences and journey through medicine. In his presentation, he focused on the aorta which is a very important area of the heart. He explained to us the different methods fixing ruptured aortas through open surgery as well as the creation of stents. He described to us how the skeleton of the stent is constructed of metal wire and a cloth is then stitched to each wire, creating the stent. He also focused on explaining how much the methods used in medicine have evolved throughout the years as he told us how about 70% of the methods that he uses today in his medicinal career, wasn’t around when he first became a doctor. This shows how much medicine has advanced within the recent years and how much there is to learn for doctors. He also explained to us the education that he received and what future doctors would take in college courses. We also learned some of the daily pressures associated with being a doctor including being able to function with little to no sleep and the fact that you are responsible for the health of the people you operate on. Also, he explained to us his two experiences outside of the hospital in which he performed the Heimlich Maneuver in order to save someone who was choking. This shows how much the material that you have learned can and will most likely need to be used outside of the office. This discussion gave me a lot of insight as to what it is like to be a medical doctor including the journey there, the everyday experiences involved, and very important responsibilities.