Outside Reading 9

I was reading a little bit in the star tribune and flipping through the pages when i came along a small article that was titled will you have a side of nachos with that? Anything with food seems to catch my mind so i started reading it. Apparently, in lakewood, colorado a couple found a very unusual topping on their tacos. It turned out to be a small bag of marijuana. The couple called the police after they had discovered the drugs from a Del Tacfo restaurant. Twenty-six year old Dennis Klermund, who the poilce said was waiting on the husband when he pucked up the food and Dennis is now charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia (which means personal belongings). Obviously Klermund denied any knowledge of the bag at first, but later admitted the bag was meant for a friend after a search dog found more marijuana in a locker of him, police said. He now no longer works at the restaurant said his owner, Ulises Montero.

Outside Reading 8

One summer day in 1996, Hans Ohlin, the fifty-year old chief of coronary care at the University of Lund Hospital in Sweden, sat down in his office with a stack of two thousand two hundred and forty electrocardiograms. Each test result consisted of a series of wavy lines, running from left to right on a letter size page of graph paper. Ohlin read them alone so that he would not be disturbed and scanned them one at a time, seperating them into two piles according to whether or not he thought that the patient was having a heart attack at the time the electrocardiogram was recorded. To avoid fatigue and inattention, he did his work over the course of a week, sorting through the EKGs in shifts no longer than two hours. He wanted no careless errors because the stakes were too high. Hans was going head to head with a computer. The electrocardiogram is one of the most common of diagnostic tests performed more than fifty million times a year in the United States alone. Electrodes are placeed on the skin to puck up the low-vlotage electrical impulses that travel through the heart muscle, and then those impulses are reflected in the waves on a EKG printout. The theory behind an EKG is that in a heart attack a portion of the muscle dies, causing the electrical impulses to change course when they travel around the dead tissue. Sometimes those changes are obvious more than they are subtle or in medical argot, "nonspecific".

Outside Reading 7

Hank Goodman was a former orthopedic surgeon. He's fifty-six years old and 6'1'' with thick brown hair and outsized hands. He is calm and confident, he is a man used to fix bones. At one time, before his license was taken away, he was a highly respected surgeon. "He could do some of the best, most brilliant work around," one of his orthopedic partners had told Atul. When other doctors needed an orthopedist for family and friends, they called him. For more than a decade, Hank was among the busiest surgeons in his area. But somewhere along the way things started to go wrong. He began to cut corners, became sloppy and patients started to get hurt or very severly hurt. Colleagues who had once admired him grew apalled. One horrible thing, is that it was years before he was told to stop.
When people hear of bad doctors they usually hear about awful, discusting, cruel people like Harold Shipman who murdered fifteen patients with lethal doses of narcotics or Johns Ronald Brown who worked without a license and amputated a mans left leg when he was perfectly healthy. This wasn't the problem though with Goodman. He was simply just growing old and senile and wouldn't retire. I don't know if it's beecause he loves the job or just won't admit to himself that he needs to quit. But when people are getting hurt or possibly even dying and your whole status goes down, that could be a big sign to stop working. One lesson I learned is to listen to your body and let it stop when it needs to.

Outside Reading 6

In the reading today there was a quote that said, "They had to learn how to operate in a much reduced space." I can relate this to many things in life. First, I went on a trip to Kentucky last summer with my dad and we brought a tent that was the suitable for one person. Of course both of us had to sleep in it and the first couple nights were very rough, but I had to learn to deal with it because that was the size of the tent and amount of space I would be sleeping in for the rest of the week. Second, there were many conflicts with this reduced space because there were several surgeons that had to be doing the surgery at a time. With a small space like that, it could be very difficult to get the tools needed and move around without knocking things over or running into them. Since this was their job and were forced to work in a smaller space, they had to put up with it and couldn't complain if they wanted to keep their job. Life is short and there are many other things worse than a smaller work space!

Outside Reading 5

I was thinking about it the other day and asked myself, "what if I were one of those patients that were tested on, or one of those patients who was one of the first to do surgery on that had never been done before?..." To me that is a very scary thought. There is always something new coming out, and new technology, tools, etc. Something could always go wrong, even when a doctor is performing a surgery they have done thousands of times.
I read something very interesting; there is a defect where the child is born with their heart's outflow vessels transposed, which means that the aorta emerges from the right side instead of the left of the heart and the artery to the lungs emerges from the left instead of the right. Now, as a result to this defect, blood coming in is pumped right back out to the body rather than first being pumped to the lungs, to be oxygenated. This is unsurvivable. The babies died blue, fatigued and never knowing what it was to get enough breath.
Surgeons being as smart as they are came up with a procedure called the Senning procedure (creating a passage inside the heart to let blood from the lungs cross backward to the right heart) which allowed children to live into adulthood. Unfortunately, the patients' hearts eventually failed.

Superhero Artifacts

Spider man is probably one of my favorites because he saves so many lives. Plus he looks cool and can pretty much do anything.

I like this photo because it shows so many different super-heroes. They all look so strong, confident and powerful with their stances.

"Extraordinary powers and abilities, relevant skills, and/or advanced equipment. Although superhero powers vary widely, superhuman strength, the ability to fly, enhanced senses, and the projection of energy bolts are all common. Some superheroes, such as Batman and the Question possess no superhuman powers but have mastered skills such as martial arts and forensic sciences."

This is an interesting piece of information and pretty awesome that they are all a little different in their own way. I also never knew that Batman didn't have any superhuman powers...




This is simply a video showing some super-hereos, nothing too special, but I gotta say that the music sounds very heroic.

SONG LYRICS
BY BONNIE TYLER
Where have all the good men goneAnd where are all the gods?Where's the street-wise HerculesTo fight the rising odds?Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?Late at night I toss and turn and dreamof what I need[Chorus]I need a heroI'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the nightHe's gotta be strongAnd he's gotta be fastAnd he's gotta be fresh from the fightI need a heroI'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning lightHe's gotta be sureAnd it's gotta be soonAnd he's gotta be larger than lifeSomewhere after midnightIn my wildest fantasySomewhere just beyond my reachThere's someone reaching back for meRacing on the thunder end rising with the heatIt's gonna take a superman to sweep me off my feet[Chorus]Up where the mountains meet the heavens aboveOut where the lightning splits the seaI would swear that there's someone somewhereWatching meThrough the wind end the chill and the rainAnd the storm and the floodI can feel his approachLike the fire in my blood

If you just read these lyrics and don't sing it or go along with the tune, it sounds like the person is relying on the hero and they are waiting for one (hero) to save their life. It is saying that the hero/heroine has to be strong, fast, sure, big and able to fight, and confident.

ARTICLE ABOUT HEROES WITHOUT POWERS
We all know about all those superheroes with magnificent powers. Superman comes from another planet and possesses many powers beyond that of a mortal man. Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider and now has the enhanced abilities of an arachnid. The Incredible Hulk gets dosed with gamma rays and becomes a hulking monster impervious to pain.
There are tons of characters just like this that possess amazing abilities that allow them to do what normal human beings can’t do. But what about those heroes that go out there in costumes every day with no powers? And no, I’m not talking about real life heroes, like policemen, firemen, doctors, the military and the like. I’m talking about fictional characters with nothing more than skills, tools or intelligence that fight crime against powered villains having no powers themselves.
The most obvious example of this is DC Comics’ Batman. Bruce Wayne is a rich boy with nothing but money and intelligence, but through diligence, perseverance and extensive training, he develops the skills and buys the tools necessary to do the job. And because of that ingenuity he has become one of the most iconic heroes today.
Then there’s marvel comics ironman, who is another rich, intelligent guy with a lot of tools. But unlike Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark doesn’t submit himself to years of training. Instead, he builds a powered suit that does all the hard work for him.
What about The Punisher? If you can call him a hero. He has nothing but a lot of guns and explosives and some former police training at his disposal, yet he wipes the city clean of thieving scum night after night.
Then there’s Daredevil, who is blind, but has heightened senses and extensive martial art skills. Even with a disability, the man manages to go out every night to one of the worst areas in the country and fight crime with all his might.
The list goes on and on. While there are far more super powered heroes flying, swimming and running around, there are a good number of heroes with no powers, but a heart and determination to do the right thing.
So who is the greater hero? The man who can lobotomize you just by looking at you all the while bouncing bullets off his chest, or the guy wearing purple tights with nothing but a quiver of arrows to shoot at you? You tell me.

So there are hereos with a heart that are determined to do the right thing and the good thing and then there are some with many super powers that help them save the world. It's hard to say which I would want. No powers or powers? Defiantely powers, but also a heart and wanting to the right thing.





Conclusion:
i think that I have already come to a conclusion about superheroes. Many have powers past the human ability whether it is stamina like the Hulk or stregth like Spider man. There are good superhereos and then not so good ones who could be considered as Villains. Superheroes can have weapons such as shooting pistols from their chest or superb technology yet some can have human abilities such as be able to fight off burglurs with their own hands. Heroes really are amazing and can help so many people and save so many lives. However I believe anyone can be a hero!

Outside Reading 4

Dear Atul,

I would absolutely love to be in your position right now. You really made a wonderful choice deciding to publish this book. I have already learned so much! What kind of thoughts run through your mind everyday? Do you get nightmares from surgeries you do? What is it like learning from former doctors, do you have a fun time? I could go on and on with asking you questions. I am planning on attending a great college and being a doctor. There isn't a set topic though on what I would like to do... With some of the things you tell me on how much practice you have to do, and how difficult a few of the procedures were makes me a little nervous though, because I don't want to spend most of my life being taught and learning/studying. Is it worth it? The way you are telling about your life makes it so much more interesting to me because you are living the life of being in residency and it gives me a little bit of feel on what it could be like. Complications seems to fit the title of this book very nicely. There are and always will be complications in life and with human beings, nothing is perfect.

Sincerely,
Holly J.

Outside Reading 3

Atul and his sister grew up in a small town of Athens, Ohio and both of his parents were doctors. His mother was a pediatrician part-time while his dad was able to practice urology (the study of the urine and the genitourinary tract in health and disease). His father became very busy and successful. One thing that I thought was kind of amazing and cool to see it actually be true was when Atul said that three-quarters of what he did in his surgery, he never learned in residency. This shows how much you learn on your own and how important it is to apply your skills and smarts to as much as you can do. One thing that I really like about this book is how much I learn... and for my future of being a doctor! There is always new technology and techniques to things that if a doctor fails to adopt the new techniques this would mean they are denying patients medical advances.

Outside Reading 2

Atul Gawande is the narrator of the novel and what he is doing is telling us about how he goes through residency to become a surgeon and practicing many times to be able get to that level. He is told by a former doctor during surgery, "you'll get it, it just takes practice." And to me, that could easily just be a life goal. Everything you want to get better at or succeed in takes practice. Just like the saying "practice makes perfect". Being in the medical field is not an easy thing to accomplish/do and it takes many years, hours and plenty of time to get to a highly ranked position. Atul has trouble with one surgery in particular. Its where he sticks a long, fat needle under the clavical of the patient and to a vein to get blood. As he watched Doctor S. in surgery (this is the way they are taught) he gets to try it himself. She of course comes in to make sure he is doing everything right, and Atul had already forgotten some steps before even starting. Atul feels horrible and that he will never be able to do it... althought it is not an easy surgery. He could not get over the fact that he was jabbing a needle so deeply and blindly into someone's chest.

Outside Reading 1

I am reading a book called Complications by Atul Gawande. One of the reasons I chose to read it was because I want to be a doctor when I grow up and it's all about medical things. Atul Gawande is a surgical resident at a hostpital in Boston and a staff writer on medicine and science.
The first sentence is awesome and already grabs my attention... as it says, "I was once on trauma duty when a young man about twenty years old was rolled in, shot in the buttock. His pulse, blood pressure, and breathing were all normal. A clinical assistant cut the clothes off him with heavy shears, and i looked him over from head to toe, trying to be systematic but quick about it. I found the entrance wound in his right cheek, a neat, red, half-inch hole. I could find no exit wound. no other injuires were evident."
Now this is only the introduction... and from what I have read so far, I cannot even put the book down. They took X-rays of this man, his pelvis, abdomen, and all of his chest but found no bullet anywhere (this was very odd). When they cut him open there wasn't any blood anymore and it seemed to be all fine. The doctors then sewed him up and a couple days later pulled up previous X-rays and found the bullet to be lodged in the upper right quadrant of his abdomen. There wasn't any explanation for this and they couldn't figure out how a half-inch-long lead bullet went from his buttock to his upper belly without injuring anything... He was in the hospital for the next week and the docs left everything alone.