Shadowing...

Yesterday I shadowed Physician Assistant Mike at the Henry Ford Hospital downtown. I arrived rather late in the day (noon). We first went to lunch across the street from the hospital in a small diner and then we went to an hour long meeting. There were 6 MD's and Mike the PA there to discuss patients they were treating. They discussed their individual issues and a treatment plan. Afterwards, we headed downstairs to a surgery room. Mike explained that this 40 year old woman was diagnosed with a Postpartum Hypertrophic Heart, meaning that when she was pregnant, the fetal cells from the baby attacked the mothers tissues. The mother had some sort of immune disorder that caused this. As a result, her heart grew very large and was not pumping properly. So this woman had to have a device installed last year that actually pumped her heart for her. The surgery I observed yesterday was to replace that device with a different device. She is also on the transplant list for a new heart, although Mike said that it will be difficult to find a heart for her due to her small size and the fact that she has had many blood transfusions and because of this, her body has produced a lot of different antibodies which means that it will be difficult for her body to accept the new heart. Anyways, yes I did see her heart. It was an open heart surgery. It was awesome!





Turns out last night on this TV show called, Hopkins (which is based on real-life doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital), there was a 19 year old man who was getting a heart transplant and had the exact same device that I saw yesterday in the OR!!!

I plan on returning to shadow Mike in a couple weeks. He will also set me up with other disciplines that I am interested in shadowing. I hope to observe in Neurosurgery, Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, Ortho, and OB/GYN.

Overall, yesterday was a great day!