"Take the scalpel and cut on the line", I did as I was told feeling the cut on my own leg as I was cutting into the patient starting to amputate his leg, and me being only 16 years old.
It was an overcast gloomy June day. I had rode in with my dad to his Liquor store, Tuxedo Wine and Liquor, around the corner from Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx NY. We drove each morning from our house in Queens which was a few block from where Donald Trump grew up( no I never knew him or his family). This was my summer routine at the age of 16 for the third year in a row. You see two years ago my father, through one of his customers who was the head technician in the surgical research laboratory at Montefiore Hospital,
got me a volunteer position at the surgical research labs(how that came about is another tale to tell). The night before I had worked till after midnight organizing and plotting on grafts the data on a research project I was doing with Dr. Smith(name changed to protect a surgeon still practicing). When I got in I called Dr. Smith at the local city hospital where he was working that day. He asked me to come over and we would review the data.
So I get on the 4 elevated subway(misnomer in this case) and take it south to 167th street and Jerome avenue(one block from where both my parents grew up). I walked the half block to Morrisania city hospital walking into the emergency room entrance. Quickly going to the bank of elevators, I rode up to the top floor saying hello to the others going to that floor that I knew from previous times.
When I got off the elevator I asked someone if they had seen Dr. Smith and told he was in pathology. On entering pathology I saw him talking to on of the pathologists in the cutting room(the room where fresh specimens are cut up and prepared for slides to examine). I walked over to them and they were standing, each drinking a cup of coffee with cream. As I walked up I noticed that a clump of fat was floating in the pathologists cup. So I mentioned it to him. He looked at it, not saying anything, he walked a few feet to the coffee table. He took a spoon and fished out the clump of fat and continued drinking the coffee. That was the days when men were men and doctors felt they were indestructible. Dr Smith said come with me.
We walked over to the operating rooms and as we walk in the head nurse told Dr. Smith that there was an emergency in the E.R and there were no residents to assist him. He turned to me and asked if I would help him. The nurse didn't even react since I had been assisting him , on occasional cases,for almost a year. I had started working with him 2 years ago in the surgical research labs and he knew I could do a good job assisting him.
I followed him into the doctors changing room and opened one of the lockers without a lock. I began undressing to my underpants and went over and got a set of scrubs. I then put my shoes back and shoe covers over them. we walked out to the pre-op area and Dr. Smith talked to the patient while I stood quietly behind him. He introduced me as a student who would be assisting him. I reached around and shook hands with the patient, an obese black man in his fifties.
We went back to the lounge and for the 20 minutes till the patient was asleep and ready for us we went over the data I had put together from the research study I was doing for Dr. Smith in the animal research laboratory at Montefiore Hospital. A nurse came in said they were ready for us. We walked to the scrub sinks and put on the cap and masks( unlike TV where they have the TV nurse put on the mask after the surgeons scrub, solely so you see the actors face for a few more moments). We scrubbed for the required 5 minutes. We walked into one of the most unique operating rooms
TO BE CONTINUED
Above knee amputation movie(run at 2X speed).
It was an overcast gloomy June day. I had rode in with my dad to his Liquor store, Tuxedo Wine and Liquor, around the corner from Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx NY. We drove each morning from our house in Queens which was a few block from where Donald Trump grew up( no I never knew him or his family). This was my summer routine at the age of 16 for the third year in a row. You see two years ago my father, through one of his customers who was the head technician in the surgical research laboratory at Montefiore Hospital,
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| Montefiore Hospital, one of the nations leading research hospitals. In 1968 the Red brick with green roof was the original Hospital |
So I get on the 4 elevated subway(misnomer in this case) and take it south to 167th street and Jerome avenue(one block from where both my parents grew up). I walked the half block to Morrisania city hospital walking into the emergency room entrance. Quickly going to the bank of elevators, I rode up to the top floor saying hello to the others going to that floor that I knew from previous times.
 |
| Morrisania City Hospital, The top floor was the operating rooms. With no air conditioning the windows were open during the summer, so we had a sterile fly swatter on the sterile operation field. |
We walked over to the operating rooms and as we walk in the head nurse told Dr. Smith that there was an emergency in the E.R and there were no residents to assist him. He turned to me and asked if I would help him. The nurse didn't even react since I had been assisting him , on occasional cases,for almost a year. I had started working with him 2 years ago in the surgical research labs and he knew I could do a good job assisting him.
I followed him into the doctors changing room and opened one of the lockers without a lock. I began undressing to my underpants and went over and got a set of scrubs. I then put my shoes back and shoe covers over them. we walked out to the pre-op area and Dr. Smith talked to the patient while I stood quietly behind him. He introduced me as a student who would be assisting him. I reached around and shook hands with the patient, an obese black man in his fifties.
We went back to the lounge and for the 20 minutes till the patient was asleep and ready for us we went over the data I had put together from the research study I was doing for Dr. Smith in the animal research laboratory at Montefiore Hospital. A nurse came in said they were ready for us. We walked to the scrub sinks and put on the cap and masks( unlike TV where they have the TV nurse put on the mask after the surgeons scrub, solely so you see the actors face for a few more moments). We scrubbed for the required 5 minutes. We walked into one of the most unique operating rooms
TO BE CONTINUED
Above knee amputation movie(run at 2X speed).
