MedEx Day 15 - June 6, 2022

Today I shadowed the Anesthesiology Department at Greenville Memorial Hospital. While there, I shadowed Dr. Cranston Gray. Dr. Gray was running the OR boards, as well as managing 2 cases and consulting another physician on heart imaging, since he had a fellowship in cardiac imaging. My favorite moment of my shadowing experience was seeing someone's heartbeat, while the blood flow was connected to the heart bypass machine. I did not realize how complex and intricate the bypass machine was. It was interesting to see the surgeon re-route the blood flow through the machine that way he could work on replacing the prolapsed mitral valve. Dr. Gray explained the imaging to Elizabeth (the other MedEx student with whom I was shadowing) and me. The patient had some backflow through his tricuspid valve; however, due to the patient's health as well as the backflow not being severe enough to warrant replacement, only the bicuspid valve was replaced.

I also thoroughly enjoyed seeing Dr. Gray do an anesthesia risk assessment with one of his future patients. Dr. Gray had to consider the patient's past anesthesia history, her known drug allergies, her kidney function, her airway, and more in crafting his plan. Dr. Gray delved into all of these factors with us and explained why he chose the plan that he did for the patient.