The Anesthesia Record

Dave - classmate, housing expert, wife of Rachel - deserves to eat every meal for a week off of this plate:
Why?  Because he is The Man, both in the OR and out of it.  Get this: the other week, Dave was scheduled as the SRNA on an intraperitoneal hyperthermic chemotherapy (IPHC) procedure.  You know, that thing they did on Grey's Anatomy last season?  (Though ever since Izzie Stevens successfully resuscitated a deer - yes, road kill - in the season 2 premiere, I assumed that absolutely everything they did on that show was fictitious as well.  Turns out it's not.  Who knew?!)  Anyway, this procedure is usually a last-ditch effort for patients whose cancer has extensively metastesized and surgery alone is not an option.  Candidates are often young and healthy other than the cancer itself.  I personally have a lot of respect for these cases because my (otherwise healthy and young) patient ended up coding without warning 6 hours into the procedure, and that's not something you forget.

Fortunately, Dave never let it get to that point.  Just after incision, he noted that his patient developed ST depression.  He notified the powers that be and, after much discussion, the incision was closed and the case canceled.  Dave's heroic actions remind me of the 1988 film "Working Girl" starring a young (and sober) Melanie Griffith.  At first she's afraid to speak up and make her thoughts and opinions heard (i.e. first day of anesthesia school) but after gaining confidence via a new, sexy wardrobe and illicit affair with her boss's boyfriend, she realizes that her ideas are both important and valid, and she deserves to be heard!  On second thought, this situation doesn't remind me of Working Girl at all.  Sorry Dave.  And Melanie.

But Dave's awesomeness doesn't stop there, folks.  No, just a few days after calling an ST depression audible, Dave and his wife, Rachel, hopped on a flight to Boston, where Dave competed in the Boston Marathon, also known as the "Bo Mar".*

He completed the race with a time of 3:30:17.  Not bad for a guy with limited opportunities to train!




Good job, Dave.  Keep making us proud - both in your green scrubs and out!

* This is a lie.  My boyfriend, Brian, who is known for saying even the most ridiculous things with such confidence that you can't help but believe his every word, told me that "those in the know call the Boston Marathon 'the Bo Mar'".  I later asked Dave if this was true, at which point he shot me a confused glance and proceeded to Google the term with no luck.  It's now become customary for Dave and I to insert "Bo Mar" into conversations about the marathon and throw our heads back in laughter.  Join us, won't you?

[All photos taken by Rachel via Brian's camera.  Thanks to you both!]