Students Experience Surgery, From School

By Naomi R. Patton, Detroit Free Press

Apr. 13–The biology students went from rapt to squeamish, from flinching to less than enthralled as they witnessed a live heart bypass surgery by satellite.

One hour became two. Two hours crawled to three, but the 30 students at the Plymouth-Canton Educational Park could not turn their eyes away from the large projection screen Wednesday morning.

“Live … from the Heart: A Dramatic Exploration of the Human Heart,” presented through an interactive satellite link hosted by the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, also was shown to students from two Chicago-area schools.

Jessica Reed said afterward that her grandfather had recently had the same surgery, and “that’s why I was freaking out.”

The 10th-grade honors biology student’s hand was clasped to her mouth from the first incision. “I thought it was so interesting,” said Reed, 16, of Canton.

The bypass surgery on a 68-year-old man at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oaklawn, Ill., began around 10:30 a.m. He suffered from arterial sclerosis, a hardening of the arteries in the heart.

Dr. Tony Tatooles, the cardiothoracic surgeon who performed the surgery, narrated every incision, every bone-sawing and every cauterized vein.

Throughout the procedure, the students questioned Tatooles, the physician’s assistant, the anesthesiologist and other operating room staff.

Contact NAOMI R. PATTON at 248-351-3689 or patton@freepress.com.

photo

Canton High senior Nick Landis, 18, speaks to his uncle Dr. Tony Tatooles, who is performing the heart bypass surgery Wednesday in Illinois. With him is his mom, Margaret Landis, a biology teacher. (MANDI WRIGHT/Detroit Free Press)

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