EHS STUDENTS STUDY A HEART BYPASS SURGERY

Advocate Christ Medical Center hosts a Heart event in cooperation with the Museum of Science and Industry. AHEC is allowed 40 logins to a Zoom meeting for students to view a Heart Surgery live and ask questions of the operating team during the surgery. Effingham High School secured one of the 40 logins!

 

EHS Anatomy and Biology 2 students viewed the heart bypass surgery along with over 500 students across Illinois. The surgical team used an internal mammary artery and a saphenous vein of the patient's left leg to complete the bypass.

 

Students were able to ask questions of the surgeon, operator of the lung/heart bypass machine (perfusionist), anesthesiologist, scrub nurse, and circulating nurse during the procedure.

 

A few comments from students in response to the event:

 

"It kind of surprised me how deep the heart was. When I think about it, it makes sense it wouldn't be close to the surface, but it was a bit surprising. I also didn't know they could just take out veins like they were during the surgery. I also didn't know they fed their blood through a machine. It seems crazy that someone could live with their blood circulating outside of their body."

 

"I loved how they got to talk to us through the surgery and about how everyone has their own job."

 

"We are learning about different systems of the body, so that aligns with a heart surgery and being able to see the cardiovascular system."

 

"I would probably tell them about the heart lung machine, or maybe that the heart doesn't look how I expected it to."