Aortic valve replacement lab

The Surgical Society hosted an event that brought in a number of cardiothoracic surgeons to teach a group of about a dozen medical students the basics of aortic valve replacement. We worked up in the anatomy lab with one pig heart and one CT surgeon for three students, plus several other CT surgeons floating around the room who were apparently there just to play around with the hearts and have fun.

The surgeon teaching my group first pimped us on heart anatomy then walked us through the transplant procedure step-by-step. The three of us took turns playing "surgeon" while the real surgeon helped us with the technical details (e.g. where to cut and where not to cut, how to position the sutures, etc...) and by explaining why we were doing what we were doing. Whenever one of us made a mistake, our teacher yelled at us, "You killed your patient!" It's a good thing we were only working on a dead pig's heart.

Seeing how all the pieces fit together physically, in three dimensions, helped me wrap my brain around how it's even possible to replace a living breathing patient's aortic valve. It truly is amazing.