Week 3: Neurosurgeon in the OR

Some may think that surgeons do similar surgeries several times a week. Some may think doing minimally-invasive surgery is kind of dull because all you can see is the LED screen in front of you with bloody tissues inside a circle which is the field-of-view of the endoscope. However, when you see it in a different way, every surgery is actually an exciting adventure into the human brain. The subtle differences between each case are what makes every one of them fascinating.

For every case, Dr. Schwartz needs to decide where to go into the tumor, what is the best way to remove it and be aware of the normal surrounding tissue. This is just what I observed, I believe as complicated as the human brain, there will be much more to consider that is out of my imagination.

Inside the operation room, the surgeon always appears calm and focus during the surgery. Even when things go unexpected, he still remains professional and tried to solve the problem immediately. It is not like the TV drama House that patient will die in a plash of a second. But I only imagine the stress and burden on the surgeon when his patient's life depends on him. I am so glad to be able to observe different surgeries and hopefully learn from him how to control emotion under stress and when things doesn't go as expected.