iMovie actually worked pretty well, but I couldn’t choose music outside my iTunes library so I had to improvise a bit. I hope you like it!

Today was another exciting day in the OR! I would be seeing a liver resection and finally had the courage to take some amazing photos and videos. I found it awkward really, because people would see it as a violation of the patient’s rights in The Netherlands while here in Italy, they don’t seem to care a whole lot at all. Obviously, I made sure that our (amazing) surgeon, who has been guiding us through every surgery up until now, knew I’d be taking photos just in case he would be caught by surprise.

The patient was an older lady who had liver cancer. During the surgery, they saw that a tumor had attached to the diaphragm and therefore got very difficult to remove. It seems that they punctured the diaphragm in the process which took a lot of time to fix. After they fixed the diaphragm, another surgeon was called to do an echo. It was probably to make sure they had the right part of the liver and to see from where to where they had to cut. Our surgeon let us knew what he’d be removing by showing the parts on the pictures but in reality, it was a lot bigger. It sure looked like as if about 75% of the liver was removed. As said before, I was finally able to take some photos and it can be clearly seen there how big the dissected part was. After the resection, we were allowed to feel the liver and its tumors. It was amazing. Again, I made videos of that too. Last but not least, I was allowed to stand really, really close to him so I could take some photos from up close. He’s an example of how every surgeon should be: an expert in his field and one willing to teach others. The surgery took over 4.5-5 hours but it was worth every second of it.

Surgery was never a field I had a particular interest in (nor a disinterest), but after seeing these surgeries, I must say that it has grown on me. Who knows…

WARNING: The videos and photos are not for the faint of heart.

Ferrara Day 28: Liver Resection
Ferrara Day 28: Liver Resection 2
Ferrara Day 28: Liver Resection 3

Gallery is after the break.

Nothing much happened throughout the day. We were pretty much waiting for the house party of the man who is organizing Ferrara Maastricht Academic Medical Exchange (F.A.M.E.) at 17:30. Just as we were about to leave with the group and a couple of cars, all of a sudden a sand storm caught our attention. Boy had we no idea of what was to come. It began to rain and the wind got a lot worse. It was something I’ve never seen before and it seems that it’s not something that has ever happened here according to our (Italian) drivers. Quite a unique experience, even though it was devastating for the complex. Many windows were broken by the wind and even the roof of part of the complex collapsed. Either it was a really poorly structured building or people just didn’t think this would ever happen. I tried to make some videos and photos of it.

The storm quickly resolved and we were able to go to the house party. I had something in mind (some kind of villa; I thought the man would probably be quite wealthy). I was close. Wow, that house was huge. And very beautiful. Especially the surroundings were breathtaking and very tranquil. The food we were offered: delicious, just delicious. Real, Italian food. Man, it was good. Do you mind if we come again, sir?

Videos:

Ferrara Day 24: Storm
Ferrara Day 24: Storm 2
Ferrara Day 24: Storm 3

Gallery is after the break.