400 heart operations in children: a heart surgeon from Novosibirsk works wonders

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

“Children are sacred for me. They never lie, they are real. The realization that my work helps them to be healthy and happy is incomparable. I would say priceless.

On the path to medicine

For me, a very difficult question is why I chose medicine. Most likely, it was a lucky coincidence that led me to it. In general, I am from a dynasty of civil engineers and I also saw my future profession in this area, and I had the ability for this. But closer to the end of school, I ended up in a class with in-depth study of natural sciences, this predetermined my professional destiny. I can say for sure why I opted for cardiac surgery. Throughout my studies, I especially liked the study of the cardiovascular system, it is really very interesting - to study the features of its structure, the mechanisms that activate … This direction attracted me more and more and grew into a persistent interest, so I came to the study of congenital heart defects. Moreover, they are so diverse that I can say with confidence: there are no children with the same congenital heart defects. It is very interesting to understand them, in the anatomy of a defect, in its hemodynamics, to correct defects and get good results.

About working with children

Working with children is a separate topic, the age of my patients is from birth to 3 years. Children are sacred to me, I love them very much, and I incredibly enjoy communicating with them. Children don't know how to lie. Adults can invent a disease for themselves, diagnose themselves and believe in non-existent symptoms of their disease. There is another extreme, when they are silent about something, they are cunning … And the children do not lie. Good or bad for the baby, you can always read his condition. Every time, I am incredibly pleased to see how the child recovers after the operation, begins to smile, recognize you, the person who put a piece of his soul into his cure. For me, this is the greatest reward for my work.

About the female profession

I believe that the profession of a doctor, moreover, of an operating surgeon, is just quite a woman's profession. Women have many advantages that distinguish us favorably at the gender level. Firstly, women are more careful, starting with medical records and ending with some technical things that we do manually. Secondly, women feel much better about their patients, especially children. In this case, the maternal instinct is probably triggered, and this gives a slightly different attitude to the work that we are doing. We treat children more tenderly, we understand them better. This, of course, is an indisputable plus, but, on the other hand, it is a minus, because we pass all experiences through ourselves, emotional burnout in female doctors happens, in my opinion, much more often.

Emotional involvement

It is very difficult for me to distance myself and not let the problems of my little patients pass through myself. I am sincerely attached to every child, I live all our successes and failures, I am sensitive to the condition of the sick. I try to help with all my might and just cannot be indifferent at the inner level. It's hard, but I can't do otherwise.

I remember all my patients. Of course, not by name, but by diagnosis. It happens that I meet a child on the street, look closely and understand - my patient.

About the first operation

I performed my first operation seven years ago. It was one of the most common operations in cardiovascular surgery - the closure of an atrial septal defect in conditions of artificial circulation. The patient was a boy at the age of 1, 7 months. It was very scary. I was incredibly worried and worried, despite the fact that up to this moment I had participated in such operations hundreds of times as an assistant. I literally knew every action every second, but I was still very worried. I am grateful to my colleagues who, together with me, took part in this operation and helped me emotionally. I was pleased with the result - the baby quickly recovered, and already on the 5th day we discharged him home. The boy was on the second postoperative examination, he is doing well.

About the inner mood

Each doctor has his own secrets of preparation for the operation. For me, the most important thing is to completely turn off emotions and calm down internally. I always have a clear plan of action in any situation. I run it several times, it is very important to understand that you exclude all possible force majeure as much as possible. I also calm down internally so that I have a cool head and a clear mind. There will be a place for emotions, but later, after the operation.

The most difficult operations

Operations are different. Physically, the most difficult operation lasted more than 12 hours: we entered the operating room at 9 am and left at 11 am. And the most emotionally difficult operation was not so long, but very exhausting internally. We put the baby in a device that performed the function of the heart, and waited for the opportunity to send the baby abroad for transplantation. But due to certain bureaucratic delays and the imposition of sanctions, we could not speed up this process. Due to the fact that the device was standing for a very long time, it provoked the development of bleeding and we had to urgently save the child. I was the attending surgeon of this baby, in total we fought for his life for 7 months, but … Every time, remembering such stories, I cry. Can I not explain how hard it is?

About patients

I love my patients very much and am always glad when they visit me. Watching how they grow and develop, realizing that they are doing well, I feel great satisfaction from my work. This is the greatest reward for the work that we do. I never had a thought to leave medicine, to try myself in some other direction. This is my life.

About first impressions that are deceiving

I often encounter mistrust on the part of the parents of my little patients. They do not see me as a surgeon, but perceive me as yesterday's schoolgirl. The first question that many parents ask me is, "How old are you?" I’m already used to it and understand the excitement of people. Many parents, if they don’t ask me these questions in person, ask nurses or cardiologists (we have two doctors at once - a cardiologist and a surgeon). However, after the conversation, as a rule, people calm down and understand that they can entrust me with the most precious thing - their child. We have wonderful relations with many, we continue to observe children, they come to the clinic, thank us. It is very nice.

About character

The medicine made me calmer. I began to relate to many things differently. To say that I have become more severe - no, rather, more restrained. At home and at work, I am different, but there is still something in common, for example, I am a pedant. It is important for me that everything is arranged in a system. I will not spare the time to find out the smallest details that will help to more accurately compose a picture of what is happening. In the end, this only has a positive effect on work. At home, by the way, I also like order. The only difference is that at work these are logical calculations, but at home it looks more substantive - to place everything neatly, on the shelves.

About hobbies

I really love to study, learn something new, gain knowledge in various fields. For example, recently my husband and I took a diving course and we gladly dive whenever possible. It's incredibly addicting! I graduated from culinary courses and, when I have free time, I am happy to delight loved ones with something delicious. I choose the dishes according to my mood: sometimes desserts, it happens that I cook hot, and it happens that I bake pies, which makes my wife incredibly happy! Another area of my interests is English. But I believe that you can learn a foreign language all your life, this knowledge will definitely not be superfluous. For us, doctors, a foreign language is very important, so I try to constantly improve my knowledge.

About scientific work

I defended my Ph. D. thesis, but I have not abandoned my scientific activity and continue to develop a very interesting and useful topic. Together with colleagues, we are creating a new type of valves for pulmonary artery prosthetics in children. I emphasize that it is in children, because they have their own characteristics of metabolic processes, and, unfortunately, children's valves fail very quickly. This is due to active growth and rapid metabolic processes, due to which calcium deposits are formed, which disable the valve. Our development is a valve with a fundamentally new anti-calcium protection. The use of such valves will reduce the number of repeated operations, because when a valve fails, we are forced to replace it with a new one. And each subsequent operation - an increase in risks and an increase in the level of complexity of the intervention. We cannot absolutely get away from replacing valves, because children grow up and every time we are forced to install a valve of a larger diameter, but we can reduce the number of such operations. Working on this topic, we presented our results at the congress of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. The work was noticed and I became a laureate of the association award in 2017. Now we continue our research and actively publish in leading domestic and foreign specialized publications. Let me emphasize that a whole team is working on the development, which includes a large number of specialists in various fields, not only employees of the FSBI NMITs im. Ak. EN Meshalkin”, but also colleagues from other institutes of the SB RAS. I am the lead researcher on this topic.

About goals and dreams

As a specialist, I dream of professional growth. But this is not a dream, but rather a goal that pushes me towards further development. I also dream … to sleep! And I want a quiet life without shocks, but at the same time there was a place for adventure and, of course, travel. I really want to see the whole world!"