N.Y. Students View Open-Heart Surgery
Feb. 27--Unless you're a patient or doctor, it's not often that a person gets a front-row seat for an open-heart surgery.
But in Cooperstown, more than 1,500 middle-school students a year are treated to the fascinating first-hand experience through the Bassett Heart Care Institute's UpClose Cardiac Surgery program, an initiative started more than 10 years ago, organizers said Thursday.
Today, more than 60 students are scheduled to visit Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown to take part in the interactive program, which is offered every week during the academic year, hospital officials said.
The idea behind the program is to promote heart-healthy lifestyles by educating teenagers from the eight-county region that Bassett serves on the risks of cardiac and coronary disease and the ways these diseases can be prevented.
"The goal is to give the students a better understanding of how the choices they make now can really affect them in 20 or 30 years," said Dr. Subashini Daniel, a cardiac surgeon at Bassett who is involved in the program. "We're educating them and also giving them an idea of the possible consequences of poor choices by showing them, and explaining, you don't want to end up in this situation someday."
The program stresses the importance of regular exercise, discourages smoking and encourages healthy lifestyle habits that could help prevent heart disease later in life, such as good nutrition and knowing family history and risk factors, Daniel said.
During the 2 1/2 -hour field trip, seventh graders are given a glimpse into the world of cardiology by meeting and talking with Dr. Daniel, taking a virtual tour of the operating room and watching an open heart surgery, Daniel said.
"Some of them are shocked when they see it," Daniel said. "But they're also fascinated and curious. It's a very stunning thing to see the human heart actually beating and see the surgeon stop it and sew up the vessels by hand. Someone's chest is open, and they're looking right into them. The magnitude of that really makes an impact on them."
In previous years, students were allowed to watch a live procedure, but because of privacy concerns for the patient, they now watch a pre-recorded surgery, Daniel said.
After watching the surgery, students meet with someone who knows what it's like to go under the knife.
Tom Kemp, 70, had a bypass surgery at Bassett two years ago and is one of the patient who speaks to students, he explained Thursday.
Kemp said he urges to take responsibility for their own health, never to take up smoking, and choose healthy options when preparing meals with their families.
"I really think it's a neat thing that Bassett is doing," Kemp said. "I worked in hospitals all my life, and I've never seen a program like this anywhere else."
Copyright 2015 - The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y.
