Surgeons And Nurses Are Sharing The Most Horrifying Things They’ve Encountered During A Procedure

5.

“I’m a medical student going into surgery; I get my MD in a year. I haven’t been at this long enough to have the wealth of stories that an actual surgeon would have, but I have a few that stand out from my time in the OR. Most recently, I assisted with a lung surgery called a decortication. This is done when a lung is trapped in place, either by a complex infection, inflammatory tissue, etc., and needs to be freed up to work properly. This lady was middle-aged, but had a history of several bouts of pneumonia and a 30-pack-year smoking history. Going into the procedure, we weren’t sure exactly what we’d find, but we were hoping it was just scar tissue from the untreated pneumonia. As soon as we got inside her chest with the scope, it was obvious that this was not the result of infection — her entire lung was essentially caked in cancer tissue, adhering to her chest wall and her diaphragm.”

“We had discussed this possibility with her and had her consent to do whatever was necessary once the surgery began. At that point, all the minimally invasive scopes and instruments went away, and my attending guided me through an open thoracotomy. This involves making a large incision between the ribs, snipping out two of the ribs, and using a rib-spreader to gain access to her chest. Once inside, my attending obviously did the work, and I just assisted, but we removed her entire lung and some lymph nodes for testing. Her chemo started the next day, and she’s fighting now. So, I guess it counts as ‘oh sh*t’ when you open up a chest and find a thicket of cancer staring back at you.“

—sterlingspeed