The Paradigm Shift of the Innocent Minds

“There is innocence in admiration and it occurs to those who have not yet realized that they might one day be admired.”

Author / Editor:

Co-Editor Anna Lou Villena 🙂

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Making the perfusion arena known to the innocent minds of the 5th graders from Changchun American International School was challenging and yet turned out to be more fun and compensating, as they were greatly amazed that this “pump thing” is happening in the four corners of the operating room.

The hospital exposure’s goal is for the students to see what is new in medical technology and those who were in propensity or shows interest in the medical profession as their future career were given the opportunity.

Knowing that 5th graders are naive about the perfusion technology they are interested at, colorful hand outs were prepared, illustrating and explaining the very basic words about heart and lung machine and the task of the perfusionist per se.

Amazement is the word!

Seeing just the actual set-up of the tubes with blood and the HL machine with the pumps rolling, one of them exclaimed “This is COOL!” and that breaks the awkward shyness and silence, as innocence was gone having started asking snoopy questions.

South Korean girl: “This feels creepy!” “So you mean, you take the heart out from the body and put it here? (pointing at the roller pump)”

Me: No, it’s not what you think! There will be tubes inserted in some parts of your heart and that will be connected going down here…. (pointing the in and out ports of the tubes as it goes back to the patient’s heart)

Brazilian boy (busy playing with the knob in the roller pumps): UHMM!!! What if you have a speed like this? This is too fast! What will happen?

Me: Being a perfusionist, like what I am doing, I cannot just go that fast. We have to do calculations for the flow based on the patient’s height and weight. We have to be very careful in every single act we do during bypass because it might be tragic for patient’s life.

Me: So what do you think guys? At this point, you already know that aside from doctors and nurses, there is also a perfusionist working in the hospital, right?

Brazilian boy: Yes! But I want to become a paramedic. Can a perfusionist also be a paramedic?

Me: Of course! Why not! You could be a perfusionist and at the same time be a paramedic for responding emergencies using a portable extracorporeal life support. This will already be a bulk of information for you right now. But that is possible!

Brazilian boy: (Beams with a smile while nodding…)

Indeed, one of the best tools for education and awareness is feeding the innocent minds of young students by exposing them to real working institutions depending on their self-inclinations, may it be in hospitals, car factory, banks, etc. For it has been said that, “there is innocence in admiration and it occurs to those who have not yet realized that they might one day be admired.”