What makes you know......

[Faze2]

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That this is the right path for you?


I'm sure people have done a thread like this before, but sometimes when I feel like I am 100% dedicated to this, I see, hear, experience things that even further solidify my dedication to becoming a doctor, and remind me how happy I am that I made this decision. I thought this could be a cool thread and keep all of us enthusiastic. (Which can be tough sometimes when your friends are all partying at company Christmas parties while you're studying organohalides and NMR tables in the library.)

One for me every day is seeing and hearing the business guys on the train in the morning. Just the **** I hear them saying or reading makes me so glad that I am not doing any of that anymore. I'd either be dead or a full blown alcoholic by this point.

One thing that I saw last night on TV was awesome. I was watching one of those "Trauma LIfe in the ER" shows. Their was a young guy who died in a car accident. (that wasn't the awesome part.) The parents decided to donate his organs, so obviously the hospital was keeping him alive. Anyway, they showed the transplant surgical team come in and harvest all of his organs. They cracked open his chest and showed his still beating heart before they cut it out. Seeing the heart actually working and doing it's job was one of the most amazing things I've seen in my life, even with it just being on TV. I've seen chests cracked open at work, but those people were dead so their was really nothing too much happening, though it was still cool to see. (in an educational way) It just made me so glad that I am going into medicine, though not necessarily cardiology. There is so many insanely cool things about the human body that I cannot wait to learn, and see first hand.

Oh and they showed the surgery for the guy who received the heart. and showed him playing with his grandson 6 months later. That was pretty cool too.


Anyone else have any?

 

[Rowantastic]

Basically it boils down to this: I've seen a lot of people die. I've seen a lot of people be saved by doctors. Saving lives for a living is nifty. I already do that in a law enforcement capacity. Doing so in a medical capacity is even niftier.

Now to slay that Calc dragon since it's a prereg for every single pre-med science course at my school...

 

[njbmd]

One thing that I saw last night on TV was awesome. I was watching one of those "Trauma LIfe in the ER" shows. Their was a young guy who died in a car accident. (that wasn't the awesome part.) The parents decided to donate his organs, so obviously the hospital was keeping him alive. Anyway, they showed the transplant surgical team come in and harvest all of his organs. They cracked open his chest and showed his still beating heart before they cut it out. Seeing the heart actually working and doing it's job was one of the most amazing things I've seen in my life, even with it just being on TV. Oh and they showed the surgery for the guy who received the heart. and showed him playing with his grandson 6 months later. That was pretty cool too.
Anyone else have any?

Make no mistake, the "hospital" does NOT KEEP anyone "alive" for heart donation. The hospital where the donor has died had no role in the care of a donor. The organ transplant service takes over this role and takes over the care of the donor until the harvest team has arrived. We do not harvest hearts from people who are "alive".

Second point, while it's really cool to talking about "cracking chests", the harvest of a heart is a very specific procedure. A better course is to learn something about the process of donation of this vital organ that thousands of people need. That family/donor was very generous in providing organs for people that they will likely never meet but have make a huge difference in their lives.

I understand your excitement but you may want to get the terms correct least anyone reading this might get the wrong idea about organ donation and the people who participate in the process. I saw the same program and you missed a few things in your description above.

 

[Beau Geste]

I understand your excitement but you may want to get the terms correct least anyone reading this might get the wrong idea about organ donation and the people who participate in the process. I saw the same program and you missed a few things in your description above.

he was only showing excitement for the path he's chosen.

 

[Beast11]

I understand your excitement but you may want to get the terms correct least anyone reading this might get the wrong idea about organ donation and the people who participate in the process. I saw the same program and you missed a few things in your description above.

Another site I visit regularly (like SDN) is the Straight Dope-its a site where a smart aleck reporter (freely admits to not being a science wonk) answers any questions put to him.

He had a exchange about organ donation here which was apropos to this thread.

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_420.html

 

[Faze2]

Make no mistake, the "hospital" does NOT KEEP anyone "alive" for heart donation. The hospital where the donor has died had no role in the care of a donor. The organ transplant service takes over this role and takes over the care of the donor until the harvest team has arrived. We do not harvest hearts from people who are "alive".

Second point, while it's really cool to talking about "cracking chests", the harvest of a heart is a very specific procedure. A better course is to learn something about the process of donation of this vital organ that thousands of people need. That family/donor was very generous in providing organs for people that they will likely never meet but have make a huge difference in their lives.

I understand your excitement but you may want to get the terms correct least anyone reading this might get the wrong idea about organ donation and the people who participate in the process. I saw the same program and you missed a few things in your description above.

Maybe I hit a nerve with you during my post, I don't know. Like megaboo said, the point of my post was to illustrate how cool I thought it was to see the heart actually pumping blood and doing its job while still inside a person. Even though I do not know the steps, I am absolutley positive there is more to organ donation/harvesting than I explained, but again, that was not the point of my post. If you would like to pm me with some links or explain more the process of organ harvesting, please do, as I am interested in learing more about it.

But as per your post, it has the feeling of a bit of an attitude, and I am wondering why.?.? I did not do any of the following:

1) Disrespect the dead. (I in fact commented on how they showed the man receiving the heart playing with his grandson, implying that the young boy had indeed given someone a second chance.)

2) Disrespected or put down the doctors or the hospital for doing their jobs. Maybe someone could interpret "kept him alive" as the 'boy being actually consious and in severe pain, and these vultures that call themselves doctors just waiting to cut him open for scraps so they could sell them and buy a new Porsche', but I don't think too many of those people would be on this site.

I understand the organ harvesting is an important part of the medical profession, and it saves lives day in and day out. If you were, for some reason, offended for the way I phrased something, I would simply relax and look more at the context of the post instead of analyzing every little detail. If I say I am driving to my friends house, I leave out the part about inserting my key into the ignition, turning it, waiting for the catalytic converter to work, putting the car in reverse, using the brakes and the gas pedal, etc... just to save some time.


But I do not want to derail this thread, so please, anyone else with stories or similar experiences please post them.😎