“So I can come today and watch your surgery?”
“Yes, of course. Come to the 1st floor at 3:30 and the nurse at reception will get you your scrubs and help you scrub in.”
“Really…but, I’m only in my first year. You know that, right doctor? I can be in the surgery room?”
“No problem, the sooner you start learning the better. Be on time. See you soon.”
And so with that began, what I at least consider to be, my medical career. The experience of standing alongside a cardiothoracic surgeon as he explained the ins and outs of performing a coronary artery bypass surgery, was unparalleled. Although I did not grasp much of what Dr. Cohen spoke about, I nonetheless learned more in those three hours than I would have in an entire semester of anatomy. The thrill of seeing a beating heart and then watching it shrink as the heart and lung machine came to life was a perhaps one of the most exhilarating things I have ever seen. As a first year medical student, my encounters with surgery are no longer meant to merely shadow or test my ability to stomach a medical procedure but an opportunity to come face to face with the wonders of medicine.
Josh Melamed
Technion American Medical Program
Class of 2016