Steady Hands: The World Through a Scalpel

In a matter of seconds, everything had changed. Little did I know that that soccer game would be the last I’d suit up for for a while. The classic “pop” was all too real. In the midst of my body being slapped down to the hard turf, I already knew something was off. My left knee was flung into the air like spaghetti and sandwiched between two people. With little control over redirecting it, there was nothing more I could do than just wait for the damage to hit. When my left side made contact with the ground, my knee still clamped inwards, there was a screaming loud “crack, then “pop” that rung through my ears. The pain was immediate and throbbing. My toes went numb and shock started to set in. Laying loosely on the ground before the medic, coach, family, and friends rushed to me felt like an eternity. Soon enough, I was on a cushioned table being examined by the sports medicine trainer. The swelling set in instantly, making my knee incredibly stiff and that much more painful. Upon ...

To the well trained eye, it seems primitive and routine. Never mind the fact that the procedure I am alluding to can take 3-4 hours, assuming there are no complications, and requires an advanced team of cardiothoracic surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and perfusionists to complete successfully. Technically speaking, Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting, or "CABG", which is pronounced as the food "cabbage", is an open-heart surgery in which a portion of a blood vessel is grafted from the aorta to the coronary artery in order to bypass the blocked section of the coronary artery and improve the blood supply to the heart. Having had the great honor of performing it on an already deceased pig heart a few times before at Stanford University, I can somewhat vouch for those who acknowledge the fact that this procedure is not merely a cut here, few sutures there, then done. Still, only a qualified MD truly understands what is mentally and physically involved when evaluating ...

The infamous television show Grey’s Anatomy has aired for roughly twelve years now. Every want-to-be-surgeon in America has at least heard of it, if not seen each season over a million times (myself included). The series follows the fictional lives of surgical interns, residents, and attending physicians as they manage their affairs both inside and outside of the Seattle hospital operating rooms. For aspiring surgeons looking for an easily accessible, simplistic sneak peak into the life they dream of living, what could be any better? I will be the first to admit that Grey’s Anatomy is most defiantly my favorite series to binge watch; the enticing medical drama seems to never end and based on my knowledge of surgical procedures, the social hierarchy within a hospital, and logistics of what occurs in the OR, Grey’s is fairly legitimate… fairly. Now, to a certain extent, yes, this show does illustrate what life could be like as a full time cardiothoracic or neuro surgeon, but then a...