Plumbing and black nodes
February 26, 2008 § 5 Comments
Postponing is always a factor in my work. Operations are rescheduled all the time for various reasons. Last week I had prepared to film a major amputation, but ended up in the stomach and groin instead.
On this particular day I was originally going to film a hemipelvectomy (or transpelvic amputation, if you like). I’d spent some of the previous day reading up on the subject and was well prepared. Only to find out the next morning that the operation was postponed. The patient had gotten a venous thrombosis and was in no condition for this radical surgery. Must be tough on the patient. He’d probably had some hard nights of mental preparation.
So no amputation, but incidentally a total gastrectomy was on. « Read the rest of this entry »
Inventory
February 21, 2008 § 6 Comments
The last three years I’ve been working on a large project to document cancer diagnostics and treatment. With only one year left of the project I wanted to make a list of all the procedures I’ve filmed so far.
Probably not interesting to anyone but myself, but it’s my blog and I’ll list if I want to. « Read the rest of this entry »
An interesting case of autografting
December 17, 2007 § 7 Comments
This autumn I had the privilege of documenting several operations for head and neck cancer. Some of the most fascinating operations involved the use of an autograft to replace the resected cancerous structures.
One of these operations was performed on a patient with cancer of the gingiva (gums). The tumor had infiltrated the mandibular bone and the surgeons had decided to remove the tumor and a part of the mandible.
In order to make a functional jaw, they were going to cut out a segment of the patient’s fibula (calf bone) and reconstruct the mandible.
The resected segment of the mandible with a tooth. The missing teeth are replaced with a dental prosthesis.
Bright spot puncture
December 13, 2007 § 3 Comments
About a year ago I was scheduled to make a video of a lumbar puncture on a child with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The purpose of the video was to demonstrate the procedure and show the specifics of puncturing children. I was going to shoot an actual puncture, so we had to get the parents’ consent to me being present with my camera.
The problem was, lumbar puncture is a diagnostic procedure, so we’d have to ask the parents of a child with recently discovered disease. Fortunately I didn’t have to ask myself, and the nurse who did it did not feel comfortable asking parents who’s life has been turned upside down if we could film their child. Naturally most of the parents we asked declined.
But then we found this 5-year-old boy. « Read the rest of this entry »
Patient patients
November 17, 2007 § 2 Comments
In my current job almost all the videos we make are of actual patients undergoing cancer surgery and procedures used in diagnosing cancer . Before we can go ahead with a recording, the patient has to sign a paper stating her consent.
When I was initially briefed about the job, I thought this would be the project’s Achilles’ heel. Why would someone who’s about to get a cancerous tumor removed from their body agree to having a camera team present? Would any woman who’s getting her breasts scanned want the extra stress of being filmed? I imagined a lot of time would be spent searching for a patient who would say “yes”. « Read the rest of this entry »
The Sterile Eye 