Week 4 – Garrett Beeghly

Clinical Immersion Week Four

Garrett Beeghly

Even though this week was cut short by the Fourth of July, I still had the opportunity to participate in clinic and observe surgeries. In the OR, Dr. Spector performed a fat graft to relieve tension on an area of skin damaged from prior procedures. This graft acted as a soft tissue pillow to prevent the skin from stretching further and tearing. He also performed a scar revision on a patient who developed an atrophic scar following spinal surgery. In clinic, we followed up with a patient who had facial reconstruction following a partial glossectomy to remove cancer. I was surprised by how well she was able to speak and control her tongue given the extremely invasive procedure she had undergone only a few weeks earlier. In lab, I finished up my first round of decellularizing human adipose tissue. Next week, I hope to section and stain the tissue in order to validate the protocol.

Decellularized human adipose tissue with no visible lipid remaining.

This week, we were also able to attend the morbidity and mortality meeting, and journal club for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. The morbidity and mortality meeting provided a dedicated time to reflect on errors or oversights in cases to prevent them from happening again in the future. The journal club was conducted in a different format than most I have attended within academic settings. Instead of discussing one article in detail, each fellow gave a brief overview of their selected paper, why they chose it, and what the main takeaway was. I also noticed that, in general, the fellows were more interested in how the findings could influence patient interactions rather than the details of the science performed.

Outside of lab, we coordinated a picnic in Central Park for the Fourth of July where each of us brought an item to share. Shout-out to Tyler for making an entire pan of mac' and cheese! Hard to believe we’re halfway through the term!