Not for the squemish... (or PETA)

Okay, everybody apparently was almost as excited as I was about my adventure last Thursday. We got to save (or kill depending on your viewpoint) pigs. That's right the military was able to spare the $52,000 so that thirty seven of us could practice our techniques on something other than a human. It was a blast. Unfortunately for all of you the first thing they told us was "no picture taking". So, my digital camera remained in my pocket the whole time. I can tell you that we practiced all of our skills. Everything from stitches to chricothyroidotomys to central line placement. Okay, so I'll never really place a central line but, I got to put one in this time. It was awesome. I learned a lot and now I feel 100% better about doing what I have to do. First, they put the pigs down (no they didn't feel a thing the whole day) and had us intubate and place the central line. For those of you who don't know a central line is where they cut your throat and open up a jugular vein and put an IV directly into it. Then we did some stitching. Then we did the cricothyroidotomy's (we will call them cric's from now on because that is way to long to spell out each time). A cric is where you (again) cut the throat open to the adam's apple, cut a membrane their and put a tube into the hole so that there is a definite airway. Then, I turn around and the pigs bowels are spilling out of his side. We got to play with them a little and then put them back inside. Then we moved onto hemorrhage. The instructor cut the pigs thigh and we controlled the bleeding using direct pressure and gauze. Then we moved onto MASSIVE hemorrhage. For a definition of massive hemorrhage versus plain hemorrhage a massive hemorrhage is when you cut a major artery (i.e. the femoral, it's in your thigh). A person can bleed out from a femoral bleed in a minute or so. That's a lot of blood. So, the instructor had us go about fifty feet away and then proceeded to cut open the femoral artery. We used direct pressure initially but, as we are taught direct pressure is not enough to control this type of bleed. We then used a substance called quick-clot. It is a sand like substance and will form a clot in a persons body. Very cool. Also, very hot. The chemical reaction can burn you if you don't wear gloves. Don't worry though it doesn't burn on the inside of the body (crazy). Then, while I'm holding pressure on the quik-clot waiting for the clot to form I hear a loud CRACK and turn to see.... my instructor cutting off the pigs front hoof with some hedge shears. It was crazy. My other teammates jumped on it though and stopped what little bleeding their was and bandaged it up. Anyway, at the end of the day our pig was still alive and I got to see an autopsy of the pig and it was the coolest thing I've ever seen. If you all want to hear more just write me an email or give me a call. The coolest day of my life. Also, I'd like to say that no animals were harmed during the procedure... but, that would be a flat out lie wouldn't it?