Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Witness of a stomach and brain surgery

I was lucky enough to experience a stomach and brain surgery yesterday. I arrived at the Operation Theater(OT) floor at the Sunway Medical center at 8am. I was greeted by an OT nurse and she brought me to the female changing room to get changed into the OT gear. It's exactly like what you see in dramas such as ER, House, Grey's Anatomy etc. -- teal-colored short-sleeeved shirt and long pants. Also you have to put on a shower-cap-like-thingy and wear a surgical mask. O one more thing you have to wear a Crocs-like shoe which are only to be worn in the Operation rooms. As I walked along the corridor, I could feel stares at me. Well..it's probably because I'm new I guess...And so what were my feelings at that moment? -- Excited and a little nervous...It's my first time so...

The first operation was the stomach one. The room was not as I had visualized earlier...In drama series when an operation is going on, the lights are usually turned off except for the ones above the patient but for this operation the lights were on throughout the whole process. There were four nurses in charge of this operation. One of the nurse told me that the patient has 'triple A'(Abdominal Aortic ... something I can't remember). But in short one of the patient's blood vessels is swollen/ has something stuck to it...either one...I forgotten too...lolz Anyways I then greeted the anesthetist and introduced myself. By the way this anesthetist kinda looked like my secondary school's(CH) principal...haha...According to one of the nurses, he is the best anesthetist in the hospital.Ooo I spoke to the best~~ Okay back to the surgery. According to that same nurse, the anesthetist is plays the most vital role in a surgery. It is he/she who is responsible of the life of the patient besides the surgeon. The anesthetist has to give the correct dosage of anesthetic to the patient. And in order to do so, he has to analyse the blood sample of the patient carefully. Also, throughout the surgery, the anesthetist has to monitor the blood pressure of the patient. O when I entered the operation room, the patient was still conscious. This was different from what I experienced 3 years ago when I had an operation. In my case, as soon as I entered the OR, I was immediately given a dose of anesthetic and I went to 'sleep' soon after that. For this operation, the anesthetist explained to me that there are two types of anesthetics. One is the local anesthethic in which it numbs the area injected while the other one is called the general anesthetic in which the patient loses consciousness. And so
after 20 minutes of poking and injecting...the patient 'fell asleep'. One more thing the anesthetist taught me was how to dry one's hands with a towel after washing and one of the ways to wear the surgical gloves. To dry your hands, you have to start from the clean part (which are your fingers) to the less clean part (which is the forearm). It is kinda hard to explain the 'how to wear the surgical gloves' part so I'll just leave it. But what I have to say is you don't just simply shove your hands into the glove like how you do when you're putting on gardening gloves. You have to be extremely careful that the fingertips part of the glove is always clean 'cause this is the part which is going to be in contact with the patient's body. Then, the surgeon entered the OR. And the first thing he asked was 'Where is my goggles?' 'Did anyone see my goggles?'. My first impression of this surgeon was 'hahaha'. Seriously, he gave me the 'playful' kind of feeling. And guess what his goggles, unlike the others which had navy blue rims, were fluorescent yellow and green...Interesting huh?

First, the patient was covered with a huge piece of blue cloth. One more thing to take note is you're not supposed to touch anything that is covered with blue clothes 'cause some of the bacteria on you might 'fly' over to these sterilized equipments. Then, here comes the best part(I thought).The surgeon cut the stomach part with a scalpel and what I expected did not happen. I thought that once you cut any part of the skin, blood will ooze out but surprisingly it didn't. Then, the anesthetist started chatting with me about school stuff. When I glanced back at the operation, (this was the best part)...I saw the surgeon digging the intestines and the stomach and placed them beside the body. I was like...Okay...but thank God I did not throw up. Actually I find it kind of intriguing. The small intestine looked like a continuous chain of sausages...

20 minutes after this stomach surgery began, a nurse called me out of the OT room and brought me to another OT room in which a brain surgery was going on. I entered the room and was sort of shocked. The patient has already been injected 'off to sleep'. And this time the patient's position was kind of weird. She was lying on her chest, her whole body paralysed...She looked like Superman flying to me minus the right hand sticking out in front. This patient had a tumour on top of her head, near her brain. The size of the tumour is as big as my fist. o_o I don't want to narrate the whole process again but maybe I'll just state the highlights of this operation. This one was bloodier than the previous stomach surgery. Blood splattered on the floor...Didn't bring my camera along with me so there're no photos and I guess you guys will just have to imagine the scene...

Today I witnessed a heart bypass surgery but I guess I'll blog again tomorrow...This one's kinda long...But I can tell you this bypass surgery was really really interesting~~ => O and a reminder for those who want to do an internship or something like what I did (the observer) in a hospital, it would be better if you'd revise some of the bio stuff 'cause the doctors/anesthetist do ask questions and you don't want to look stupid...like what I experienced -- I forgotten the difference between superior vena cava and inferior vena cava....oops...=p

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