Hi, my name is Stefan Moorman, and I am from Telluride, Colorado. My Pinternship began on July 1st; therefore, this is my first blog for the program. I am interning with Dr. Gregory J. Moorman at his private practice, local hospital, and at the Plessen Healthcare Center on the island of St. Croix. I am interning with another Pintern, Avery Wright, and a nursing student from Rhode Island, Juliette. During our first week, we spent most of our time at the Plessen Healthcare Center; in which, we observed Dr. Moorman complete multiple surgeries in the operating room.
On the first day, July 1st, Dr. Moorman did a breast reduction at the Plessen Healthcare center. My mind was blown as I watched Dr. Moorman began the reduction. During the operation, Dr. Moorman found and removed dis-colored lymph nodes from the patient’s breast. After being sent to pathology, the pathologist asked if the patient had any tattoos on her chest. She did, and the doctors believed that her lymph nodes had been absorbing her tattoo ink. Dr. Moorman removed around 400 grams of breast tissue and fat from each side. This was one of the smaller breast reductions he has completed, the largest taking 8 pounds of tissue/fat from each breast. I learned about the many jobs required for operations such as surgical technician, nurse anesthetist, surgical nurse, infection control nurse, and more. Prior to this operation I had no idea a nurse could apply anesthesia in an operation. I always thought there had to be an attending anesthesiologist.
We did not take any photos of the breast reduction, but I thought I would share a similar diagram of the process. Dr. Moorman usually uses the Inferior Pedicle Technique on breast reductions.
On our second day, July 2nd, we went back to Plessen and completed a hernia (the result of when an organ pushes through gaps in the muscles or tissue) repair on one patient, and both a tummy tuck and hernia repair on another. The first patient had a left inguinal hernia while the second had an umbilical hernia. In the inguinal hernia, Dr. Moorman lifted and showed us the vas deferens, and blood vessels while fixing the hernia. Dr. Moorman used a prolene mesh to cover the hernia hole, blocking the hernia sac or any organs from bulging. In the second patient; after the umbilical hernia had been corrected, Dr. Moorman proceeded to complete a tummy tuck with about two pounds being taken from both the left and right abdomen. Dr. Moorman made an incision just below the waist, and slowly began cauterizing to elevate the abdominal wall skin and fat upward. The belly button was the only area of the abdomen that was not detached from anterior abdominal wall fascia. The patient was then elevated into a near sitting position, and Dr. Moorman removed the excess abdominal wall tissue; a new opening was made in abdominal wall to keep the belly button in its natural position. Watching these operations is like watching someone put together a puzzle, crazy cool!
The photo on the left shows the hernia sac of Patient 1, the inguinal hernia. The middle photo shows Patient 2’s abdomen before the removal of any tissue. The hernia was located underneath Patient 2’s belly button. The photo on the right shows me holding the removed specimens from patient two. In the photo, you can see that more was taken off the right side in an attempt to correct pre-existing size differences in her abdomen.
On day three, July 3rd, Dr. Moorman took us to his private practice. We only had a few patients come in, and they were mainly post-op checkups. The first patient had botox done on their forehead to treat wrinkles. The second patient was the breast reduction we had done on July 1st. The third patient was another breast reduction patient who has been recovering for a week. Our last patient was from the tummy tuck and hernia repair we had done on July 2nd. After completing their checkups we went to dinner in celebration of Dr. Moorman’s birthday. And on Sunday, July 4th, we plan on going to Buck Island to celebrate the Fourth of July. Thank you for reading my first weekly blog!
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