Why do surgeries, especially transplants, take so long?

Question

I just saw a post about a doctor monitoring his patients vitals after a 23 hour long heart transplant surgery, with the nurses sleeping in the background. I understand that that may be one of the hardest things in the world to do, and requires an amount of focus I can’t even imagine. But still, what takes **so** long in the operation room?

Ninja edit: missspell

In: Biology

Answer 1

-Important Lessons learned :

1) People are capable of anything. Having worked trauma you see the worst of the worst. Witnessing the horrendous things people are capable of doing to each other gives you a different perspective on humanity in general.

2) There is no such thing as a small surgery if you’re being put under anesthesia. When they put you under they literally put you on the border of life and death. Anytime that you are put on an operating room table under anesthesia you were taking a tremendous risk and it’s not to be taken lightly.

3) Last but not least. And in my opinion one of the most important. Although surgeons do come off having a God complex. The truth is most of them are your average human being just like me and you. People have a tendency to put them on a pedestal because of their education and the responsibility that’s handed to them. But in the end they’re human just like the rest of us.

-One of the most interesting cases that still sticks with me today:

Had a man come in my hospital face down butt in the air. When he was put on the yard table and the sheet was removed from the top of him there was about 4 inches of a black dildo protruding from the anus. Once the patient was sedated and the body was relaxed the doctor was able to insert his hand into the anal canal and manipulate the object to remove it. It ended up being a 16 inch double ended black dildo. The gentlemen had gotten it so far up that I had actually gotten caught on what’s called the descending colon. To this day I still can’t believe it went that far up in the patient. The dildo was documented, washed and put with the patient’s belongings to be sent home with him.