Emergency from the Cath Lab!!!!

Those fun little emergency cases we did, wow, got to see it in real life, but the patient lived:-) Code was called over the loud speaker, patient coming down from the cath lab...rushed them in, opened the chest, and on bypass they went. Harry and Ed were right, they move fast, and they are pushy about getting that patient on bypass NOW. It was obviously different in that most of the pump was set up and dropping prime was the only thing left to be done, but seeing about 25 people running around like mad, and trying to stay focused on the pump and keeping calm and not falling into the nursing staff and their chaos. The cardiologist are disliked greatly in the CVOR here, as they probably are at the hospitals you are at as well...doing "surgical" type procedures, stenting arteries that shouldn't be stented, dissecting coronaries, losing catheters in the right heart, etc. My first piece of advice, when you here the complaining start and the bad mouthing begin (about cardiologists), keep your mouth shut, second if you're lucky enough to be in the room during an emergency case - stay calm, and focused, always be thinking about what you would NORMALLY need to go on bypass, and that prebyass checklist in your head - use it!

-Malia