The Tuesday after we flew back from Madrid, I along with the other biomedical engineering students got the incredible opportunity to shadow an anesthesiologist at the Uniklinik in Bonn. Although I was excited to observe a surgery, I was not expecting any thing that grand, and thus was completely caught off guard when Alwin and I witnessed an old lady´s chest get sliced open, revealing her beating heart and lungs. We soon found out that the surgeons were conducting a cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. After learning about the cardiovascular system in my physiology class this semester, I have had an increasing interest in pursuing a career in this field, and this interest was only amplified by this experience. Watching the surgeons grab the patient´s beating heart with their hands and "not so gently" stab different arteries to connect an ECMO (artificial heart/ lunch device) was mind blowing. Unfortunately, our anesthesiologist did not speak very good English so Alwin and I had to figure out for ourselves what was going on. Luckily, we had learned the basics of how this procedure worked, so we weren´t completely surprised when a second surgeon sliced open the patient´s leg and cut out a vein from her calf to connect to the heart (to bypass a blocked carotid artery). It was probably one of the wildest things I have ever witnessed, but I definitely want to shadow another surgery when I return back to the United States.
The rest of the week was fairly stressful getting back into the swing of things, and I quickly missed our carefree spring break. I love Germany, but I dislike most of my engineering classes, so I am definitely ready to be done with the school part of this semester. Since there is not much to say about my classes without boring whoever actually reads this blog, I am going to skip to the weekend. On Saturday, Corey, Shannon, Brynn, and I took a train down to Koblenz, where we rented bikes and biked 20 miles down the river to a little town on the Rhein called St. Goar. It was a beautiful sunny day, and thus a perfect day to go biking in what I consider one of the prettiest locations in Germany. This stretch of the Rhein is packed with medieval castles nestled into the sides of the tall cliffs, through which the Rhein flows through. About a mile into the trip, I ended up switching bikes with Shannon, as hers was too small for her. I can´t say it was the nicest bike in the world, but I´m sure that my thighs would get massive if I rode it everyday. When we arrived in St. Goar, we attempted to bike up to Rheinfels castle which was on top of the cliff overlooking the town, but we quickly gave up after about 100 feet, and walked the rest of the way. I had visited Rheinfels castle when I lived in Wiesbaden back in middle school, and was excited to return and explore the underground tunnels beneath the castle ruins. Unfortunately, the tunnels were closed due to renovations, but we made our own adventure by illegally climbing all over the walls of the castle. At one point, I jumped up to a window sill inside of a tower with an eroded staircase and climbed through a rusty gate in order to explore an secluded part of the castle wall. I´m sure I risked the chance of contracting tetanus from cutting myself on the rusty bars, but the adventure was definitely worth it. We explored the castle until it closed, and then we headed back down into the town to grab dinner at an Italian ice cafe. Due to an incredibly slow service, we had to rush to catch the train back to Koblenz, but we caught it just in time. All in all, it was a very fun relaxing day!
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