Chicagoland

Students get front-row seats to a heart surgery

By Michelle Martin | Staff writer
Sunday, October 10, 2010

When Dr. Antone Tatooles sliced into the chest of the patient on the operating table, the eighth-graders from St. Michael School in Orland Park flinched.

When he started up a jigsaw to cut through the patient’s sternum, they let out a collective groan, and many averted their eyes for a moment. But they were soon watching again as Tatooles and a surgical team at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn completed a quadruple bypass on a 55-year-old man Sept. 22.

The students watched the surgery via videoconference from St. Michael’s Interactive Distance Learning Lab after weeks of preparation by science teacher Debbie Ramig, but they didn’t know they’d actually see Tatooles open the patient’s chest cavity; they had planned to join the surgery in progress after that point. But a delay at the hospital that morning meant they saw the surgery from the beginning.

The videoconference was part of the Museum of Science and Industry’s “Live from the Heart” program, which allows students in eighth grade and older to observe open-heart surgery from Advocate Christ Medical Center on many Wednesdays during the school year. The day the St. Michael students watched, there was also a group from Lakes Community High School in Lake Villa watching from the museum and a group of students from a community college in Long Branch, N.J.

During the surgery, the students had the opportunity to listen to Tatooles and other members of the team describe what they were doing and to ask questions about the procedure and the patient, who had given consent for the operation to be broadcast.

St. Michael was able to participate thanks to a videoconferencing system bought last year with a private donation. On. Sept. 22, they saw Tatooles’ assistant pluck a section of vein from the man’s leg, pulling it from a small incision near his knee. They watched Tatooles work an artery from within the chest cavity free of its surrounding tissue and attach it to the heart, then use the leg vein to bypass other blockages.

They heard Tatooles explain why he prefers doing bypass surgery with the heart stopped — because it’s easier to get a tighter seal between the blood vessels when the heart is not moving — even though it is sometimes done with the heart beating.

Tatooles told the students that the man was obese, diabetic and had a history of heart disease. Sleep apnea enlarged his lungs — the interruptions in breathing lead to high blood pressure in the lungs, which eventually causes them to enlarge — causing them to press against his heart.

At the end, they watched the patient’s heart start again.

In response to a question from a St. Michael student, Tatooles told the group that the patient would likely need more surgery within 10 years if he did not change his lifestyle.

The lifestyle message got through loud and clear to the St. Michael students.

“If you don’t eat right and take care of yourself, you’re going to have coronary surgery someday,” said student Colin McGovern.

“All the things you do to your body will affect you,” said Beth Finn.

Teacher Ramig reminded the students to take what they learned home and share it with their families. “This is something you are going to remember,” she said. “Not everyone gets to do that.”

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