Surgical Self-filming
December 23, 2009 § 1 Comment
My sister’s father-in-law is a retired corporate photographer. The last time I met him he told me this crazy story about a guy he used to work with. This guy used to be a videographer, and when he recently was going to have a total hip replacement, he decided he was going to film the operation – himself (photo credit)!
What made this possible in the first place was that he was only administered a spinal anesthetic. This blocked the nerve signals from his lower body, but allowed him to stay awake during the whole procedure. Before the operation he was allowed to attach a remote-controlled camera to the light rig, he had a nurse control a second cam, and a third left on its own – probably with a wide view of the OR. During surgery he controlled the remote cam using a joystick and a small monitor. Seeing something through a lens normally creates a certain amount of distance to the subject, and I guess that’s handy if you’re seeing this (photo credit) and knows it’s your own:
I think I would have found it really interesting myself, but having seen a lot of surgery, I probably would have been too annoying. “Hey, what are you doing that for? You sure that’s the right artery? Don’t you ‘shhh!’ me. That’s my hip your cutting!”
The Sterile Eye 
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