BROOKVILLE — A group of students from Brookville Area High School had the rare opportunity recently to watch an open heart surgery being performed. The patient was a man in his early 60s.
Ten members of the Med Club, accompanied by school nurse Sharon Doolittle and biology teacher Cameron Yard, observed the three-hour surgery at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.
Corinne Siar, a senior who is planning a career in biomedical engineering, said the students had the opportunity to watch doctors perform a coronary artery bypass grafting procedure.
“In this particular case, the patient had only one major blockage that required this surgery. We got to see doctors reroute the mammary artery to the blocked artery to allow new blood flow. This was truly an amazing experience and opportunity for all who attended.”
Doolittle added, “Another part of the surgery was that the patient also had a patent foramen ovale. This is a small hole between the upper two chambers of the heart that typically closes at birth. To repair this, the heart had to be first emptied of the blood to see the hole and suture it closed. This complicated the surgery, but the doctors, nurses, surgical techs, anesthesia, perfusionist, and other staff at AHN, are excellent. It was truly a unique experience to see the heart stop when they introduced the cardioplegia solution into the heart and then the spontaneous restart after the heart was refilled with blood.”
Siar said many of the Med Club members “plan to go into the medical field and being able to witness this procedure allowed them to see what they could potentially do. Watching a real human heart in front of us was truly incredible. It was way more intense and eye opening than we ever thought it would be. Everyone in the operating room had a purpose and each individual was important to the surgery in their own way, even if they were not actively participating. This showed us just how much teamwork goes into a surgery like this.”
Joshua Semeyn, a senior who plans to major in biology at Penn State Behrend, said, “my goal is to attend med school at LECOM. My ultimate goal is to become a family physician. The surgery motivated me to pursue my goals even further.”
Doolittle said the surgery “was also the first but perhaps not the last time that some of these students saw a heart-lung bypass machine being used to maintain the blood circulation to the rest of the body while the heart was being operated on.”
Doolittle thanked high school Principal Shawn Deemer and Superintendent Erich May for their support. “Without them, the trip would not have been possible.”
Siar said, “This trip was truly an unforgettable experience that made us more excited about pursuing our careers within the medical field.”