Week 7 – Garrett Beeghly

Clinical Immersion Week Seven

Garrett Beeghly

It is hard to believe that the last week of my clinical immersion term with Dr. Jason Spector in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine has come to an end. In the OR, we observed the removal of a large pilar cyst from a patient’s scalp. She had developed this cyst over the course of several years. While the cyst did not present a direct threat to her health, it had become large enough to be painful and uncomfortable. In addition, the fibula flap procedure that I mentioned previously was also scheduled for this past Tuesday. However, the case was aborted after putting the patient under anesthesia for a number of reasons. First, the patient quickly became hypotensive and acidotic after being put under anesthesia before subsequently developing supraventricular tachycardia. This gave Dr. Spector and the other surgeons involved with the case pause given that the procedure would normally take eight to ten hours and result in substantial blood loss. Thus, the patient was ordered to receive a full cardiac evaluation to ensure he is fit enough to withstand the surgery, which has been tentatively rescheduled for the middle of August.

In clinic, we saw the patient with tissue expanders in his neck for a follow-up visit. Dr. Spector assessed the increase in skin created by the expanders and further inflated them within saline. In one to two more sessions, Dr. Spector hopes that the patient will have enough excess skin to graft over his facial burns. This week, we also debrided an insufficiently vascularized foot wound in an attempt to promote the formation of granulation tissue and observed an initial consult for breast reconstruction following mastectomy. In lab, I finished embedding and sectioning all the patient adipose tissue samples I processed over the summer. Once I am back at Cornell, I will analyze these samples via histology and immunohistochemistry.

Outside of the hospital, Spector Lab hosted a farewell lunch for us at Felice 64. We were able to meet previous members of the lab and say goodbye to the current members who helped us throughout the summer. We will miss you Ishani, Mariam, and Runlei! In addition, our Ph.D. class took a group photo and had our end of immersion dinner with the program coordinators at Petaluma on Thursday night. On Friday, we went out for drinks to celebrate the end of a productive and enjoyable immersion term. Now, back to Ithaca!

Spector Lab and friends gather for a farewell celebration at Felice 64.