Week 5

     The operation I watched today was on a patient that was born with a heart disease called Tetralogy of Fallot. This disease consists of several different heart defects, so he had to have open heart surgery at 3 months old where they put a valve in his heart to even out some of the connections. There is some leakage in the valve that has caused the right side of his heart to grow too big, too fast, which could cause more complications in the future. I was not able to watch the whole operation, but they were planning to balloon the valve to make sure that it doesn't cause any pressure on the coronary arteries. If it doesn't, then they will put a new valve in. They showed me the valve that they were going to use, which is attached to a stint.

Open Valve

 Closed Valve

4th Week at TCH

     Today I watched an operation on a young boy who has been in heart failure, and already had an artificial heart device put in during a previous operation. There was a leak in a valve that they put in previously that they will probably have to fix on a later date, as well as a blood clot near the valve. Today though, they were mainly testing different speeds of the device to see which seemed the most natural and worked the best for him. They used both X-ray and ultrasound to do this, which was very interesting, because I did not know previously that ultrasound was used to look at your heart.

3rd Week

This was a very exciting week at my internship because I actually got to stand inside the operation room for a large part of the operation that I watched. I also got to see the beginning of the process of setting up for the operation, and I got to meet the anesthesiologist. It was a very interesting procedure, which hopefully the child, who was very young, should only have to have once. She had a heart defect where a connection between her heart and her lung artery which should have closed after birth was still open, so the doctors were going to put a block in the connection. I got to watch most of the operation from the observation room, and watch the X-rays on the computer screens, as well as some of it from the operation room. It was very exciting.

2nd Day at TCH

     This week at my internship was very interesting. I successfully didn't get lost (which I was quite worried about), and I got to watch the first couple hours of a very interesting operation. They were trying to balloon the pulmonary veins in a little kid so that his blood pressure around his lungs would be normal. They explained to me that these veins are very stubborn and do not stay open for long, so the child had had a lot of operations before. I was able to watch for a long time and ask a lot of questions, which was really great. It was sad to learn that this child had had so many operations already and that he would have to have many more during his lifetime, but it was a very interesting operation to learn about, and it was a great second day.

Starting at My New Internship

     On Wednesday, January 30th, I started a new internship at Texas Children's Hospital, where I am shadowing Dr. Qureshi, a pediatric cardiologist. This was very exciting for me because I have wanted to get an internship in the medical center for a long time. I was filling out paperwork for the second half of last semester, and this year, I finally got to start. I spent my two hours on Wednesday morning getting my badge with access to the cardiology wing, learning how to access and wear a pair of scrubs, meeting a lot of people, and observing a procedure. It was all very exciting, and a great way to start my new internship.