My eighth rotation was Surgery at Woodhull Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY. Honestly, I was nervous going into the rotation with the understanding of the demanding schedule and the amount of the time to be spent in the OR. While the early hours were challenging, I truly enjoyed and learned a lot from this rotation. It was amazing getting to see patients either in the ER or in the clinic and then again in the OR, unlike any other rotation. I learned a lot from both the clinic aspect of the schedule, seeing patients with surgical complaints and from my time in the OR scrubbing into various procedures.

I really enjoyed getting to scrub into many different cases including laparoscopic hernia repairs, open hernia repairs, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, orchiectomy, quadriceps tendon repair, ORIF distal radius fracture and more. One of my favorite procedures was the sleeve gastrectomy. I found the procedure fascinating and exciting, getting to see the anatomy in that location and the technique with which the surgeon removed 75-80% of the stomach. For this procedure, I helped remove the trochars from the patient when it was over and helped close using the simple buried suture.

A difficult aspect of this rotation for me was making sure I maintained sterility in the OR. Throughout the rotation I improved with my scrubbing, gowning and gloving techniques. In the beginning, it was so new to me and although I never broke sterility I always had to be very conscious of where I was in relation to the field and make sure I didn’t contaminate anything. All the scrub technicians were very helpful and always made sure I was set up and prepared.

One patient that stood out to me was a man in his 50s who presented to the hospital weeks earlier with Fournier’s gangrene. His presentation was very severe with a necrotizing fasciitis and gangrene of his penis, scrotum, perineum and lower abdomen. He needed several debridements and skin grafts in the OR. We saw him every morning on our morning rounds and he had to withstand all of the inspections, dressing changes and days in the hospital. It was amazing to finally see this patient able to leave to a subacute rehabilitation. He was so thankful to the surgical team who did their best to provide the utmost care for him and it was truly beautiful to see.

Something I feel that I improved in on this rotation was my knowledge of anatomy. Having to prepare for the surgeries I was scrubbing in for and then seeing the actual anatomy in person, either open or laparoscopic, really helped solidify the information. I learned a lot this rotation and am thankful for my time here!