How to Do a Liver Transplant by Kellee Slater

Author:Kellee Slater
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: NewSouth
Published: 2013-05-28T04:00:00+00:00

How to do a liver transplant

After I had been in Denver a few months and had spent many hours assisting Dr Kam, he became confident enough of my abilities to take me through my first liver transplant as the primary surgeon. I was thrilled. This was followed a few months later by my first solo transplant, that is, without one of the bosses scrubbed. This was a big day and I was every bit as nervous and excited as I was with my first appendix. I didn’t even know it was going to happen until I was well into it. Dr Kam sat in the corner of the OR preparing the new liver for transplant while I started the operation with the surgical registrar. Of course my first brilliant manoeuvre was to make an inadvertent hole in a major blood vessel and it was difficult to mask the sound of the blood rocketing up the suckers and the flurry of activity as I forcefully requested the required stitch to patch the hole.

‘Kelleeeeeee, everything going OK?’ Dr Kam asked, looking up from his work in the corner.

‘Yes, Dr Kam, no problems,’ I said, sewing up my hole as quickly as possible, trying to keep my racing heart under a hundred. I did not want him to have to take over to get me out of trouble. This was part of being a grown-up surgeon. With a few quick stitches and the tying of a knot, everything came under control and Dr Kam turned back to what he was doing. Things then proceeded in an orderly fashion and after a while Dr Kam announced that he would be going upstairs for a while.

‘I am on my phone,’ he instructed. ‘Call if you need help.’ With that, he left the OR and everyone turned to look at me. This had not happened before. I beamed behind my mask and then just felt anxious as I realised the trust he was placing in me. I would not let him down. When I successfully put the last stitch in and tucked the patient into the Intensive Care Unit, I dropped into Dr Kam’s office to tell him I had finished.

‘Everything OK?’ he enquired.

‘Yes, thank you for letting me do it,’ I said, secretly so chuffed with myself. I found out later that everyone had shared my excitement at my first solo case from the moment Dr Kam arrived at the office. In the American system, trainee surgeons are rarely left alone and I knew that this was a nod of confidence in my skills and especially my ability to call for help if I needed it. In surgery, trust is everything.

When a liver transplant goes well, I experience a high that any drug in existence would be hard pressed to provide. This rush will last long after I get home and I am usually so wound up that I have trouble falling asleep as I replay every single stitch and every gush of blood over again in my mind.

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