Today we started again at around 8am. After getting into scrubs and getting our official ID badges, we headed into surgery.
I saw two surgeries today, both performed by Dr. Boulton. The first one was another valve replacement, but it was a little bit more invasive than the TAVR I saw twice yesterday. The patient went on general anesthesia and the chest was opened by sawing through the sternum and exposing the heart. The aortic valve was being replaced so the patient had to go on bypass. This is when a machine works as the heart and lungs so that the heart can stop beating while the surgery is taking place. This procedure lasted about 2 1/2 hours. After the surgery ended, we took a quick lunch break, then headed back to the OR to watch another of Dr. Boulton’s surgeries. This second surgery was a triple coronary artery bypass. Again, the patient was placed on general anesthesia and the chest was opened to expose the heart. The coolest thing about this procedure was the heart never stopped beating as it was being operated on. The artery used for the bypass was harvested from the leg which I also got to see. This surgery lasted about 4 1/2 hours, and we stayed for the whole thing. In both of Dr. Boulton’s surgeries, he wore a camera on his head so that when he looked down, everything that he saw displayed on a screen which we could see from inside the OR. After this surgery ended, we called it a day and left around 5:30.