Week 1 - McCoy

My first week of summer immersion in New York City seemed to go by quickly as I met with the different staff not only involved with the functions of the program, but the staff that would be a part of my clinical immersion as well. During this first week, I was able to start attending various seminars and sort of learn the layout of the hospital (though I doubt I’ll ever be fully comfortable walking around it without a map). I was also able to meet my mentor, Dr. John Boockvar, a spine and brain surgeon in the neuroscience and neuroanatomy department. I was able to do my first shadow experience with Dr. Boockvar on June 14^th, where he was repairing a failed vertebra fusion in an elderly patient; this would be my first live surgery.

The patient had previously had two vertebrae fused with two titanium screws and a bar set across them in order to insure that the bars would move together. Over time, the bore holes for the screws had slowly deteriorated, causing one of the screws to come loose and fail. Dr. Boockvar participated in the surgery to fix this, doing so by taking screws with larger bores and inserting them into the same position. Much of my initial experience in this surgery was very informative as I spent most of my time asking the nurses and assisting staff about different surgical techniques and instruments that I wasn't familiar with. The surgery itself took almost 5 hours to complete, from start to finish.

Afterwards, I talked with different technicians as they left the OR and inquired as to why the original construct had failed. They mentioned several possible candidates, such as obesity, poor exercise habits, and poor sleep positions and stated that it was likely a combination of all of these different conditions that caused a problem. Seeing this and many of the other conditions that people were in due to poor diet and exercise has surely motivated me to take better care of my own body.