3rd Week at TCH

     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.
     I think that this day at my internship falls under Service and Learning Outcome 7: Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions. The doctors I am shadowing are some of the leaders in their field, working with some of the most advanced technology. They have to make many difficult choices during the operations, and are often met with challenges and frustration. They also have to make a lot of ethical choices when choosing when to schedule patients. They want to get people in as soon as necessary, but they have to prioritize more life threatening issues, and they can't work themselves 24/7, even if they wish they could.