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| Blood Clot | |
 BLOOD CLOT "The Art of Learning Medicine May H. Lesser This was an operation to drain a hematoma from a kidney of a fifteen-year-old boy. The patient was first diagnosed as having pneumonia, before the t trouble was found to be hematoma from a football injury. Much blood was lost, and once the oscilloscope did not register his pulse. Two pints of whole blood were pumped in. The surgeon’s gum chewing stopped. The glass of the dome separated us as well as gave us a filling of participating. It was how one had just felt watching Robert Kennedy assassinated on the V screen. We responded to the event but were unable to help. We felt paralyzed. In a matter of seconds, the patient’s heartbeat again registered as a trace sweeping across the oscilloscope screen. We sighed audibly as though we personally had contributed. Then we quietly realized how much "we" freshman did not know. As an artist, I found the scene below me was impressive because of the precise positions of the staff around the operating table; the nurse had to be where she was, the anesthesiologist had to be where he was...a certain beauty to the efficiency. The doctor holding the retractors assumed the same pose as Michelangelo gave the Libyan Sybyl in the Sistine e Chapel. The classical poses seemed like a group sculpture. |