One of the most significant days in my life so far was the day that I got to watch open heart
surgery in person. More specifically, a triple coronary artery bypass graft, also known as
“CABG”. Not only is this an intricate surgery, but it was being done on an 85 year old woman,
which substantially increases the risk of the surgery. I was doing a rotation at the Travis Air Force
Base hospital in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), when I overheard someone talking about the
surgery planned for the next day. I couldn't believe what I had heard. I knew that I wanted in on that
surgery because I had been at Travis for my hands-on training for a couple of weeks and really
hadn't seen or learned much. When I had first started my rotations at the hospital, I thought I
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I was tired of not learning more than I thought I should be and didn't
want to wait around anymore for knowledge to find me. I decided that I needed to take action and
that's exactly what I did.
I went to the ICU nurse that I had been shadowing that day and asked her if it would be
possible to sit in on the surgery. I explained that it would be an incredible experience and I would
do anything to be in that operating room. To my surprise she said that didn't she see why I shouldn't
be able to. I didn't actually know what a CABG surgery was until after she taught me. She taught
me so much about this procedure, from what to expect to why the patient needed it. It was amazing
how much I was learning just about this one surgery. The more she taught, the more questions I
asked. After learning about the procedure the nurse took me to the patient to meet and get
permission from her. The next day I could hardly wait to get to the hospital. The surgery lasted
seven hours, which was longer than planned, but I didn't mind. The whole surgery was amazing
from start to finish. The nurse put me right behind the head of the patient on a stool, so it was