Lights? Check. Camera? Check. Scalpel????? Um huh, I said scalpel. Check! Very cool indeed. A Cambridge surgeon, Francis Wells, provided entertainment to over 200 members of the public via the operating room. This really is neat!
Dr. Wells talked the audience through the procedure and fielded questions about open heart surgery and valve repairs along the way. When you think about it, this is a much easier way to “teach” about surgical procedures and medical treatments. A normal OR can only handle two dozen or so professionals that cram as close as they can to the ledge of the observation …read more

Oh my goodness. I found the coolest simulated open heart surgery “game”. It is very elementary on an anatomical level and has 3 different levels you can choose from. At the surgeon level, that would be mid-grade, I was successful. At the specialist level… not so much! In fact they advised me to “call my lawyer”. Haha.
While it is only a depiction of what open heart surgery really consists of, it is fairly accurate. I have scrubbed open heart before and the simulation follows the same basic steps just without the complications, risks and unforeseen circumstances of real …read more

I am bringing you a list of 10 Hearty trivia facts. Some are oh so crazy and off the wall, others are expected. Enjoy! And don’t forget to check out all of my fellow science and health bloggers “top 10 lists”. I think it is a fun way to relay information, both clinically and personally…
Top 10 Hearty Trivia Facts
1. Author of Frankenstein Mary Shelley kept her dead husband’s, poet Percy Shelley, heart wrapped in silk until she died. Imagine how that smelled!
2. You can purchase the largest model of a human heart for a small price …read more

As a cardiac nurse, I see many procedures and types of treatments that question “ethics”. You know that whole quantity or quality? The thing is there is so much technology and advances in medications that we can keep a very sick heart going for a very long time. Is that to say that very same heart is effectively working without discomfort, compromising one’s lifestyle, hospitalizations and every day worries? No, not at all.
Researchers found that 16 percent of these patients reported refusing one or more medical or surgical interventions recommended by their physician. The most frequently …read more

Would you feel safe having a catheterization at a facility that doesn’t have open heart back up? Meaning… if you were to have a heart cath procedure at a hospital that couldn’t take you directly to the open heart operating room, do you think it would be as successful as an outcome? I have worked at so many different facilities and often pondered on this very question.
The last hospital that I worked at was Nationally known for their open heart surgery program. We flew people in from all up and down the east coast, and did at …read more