Unless you're a member of a surgical team, it's difficult to get a close look inside an operating room, especially one where open heart surgery is performed. Even if you're the patient, your view is brief, horizontal, and limited by circumstance. That's why we leapt at the chance to tour the new facilities at Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, Florida. We were lucky enough to be on hand for a special tour and open house that allowed us to see the route followed by a patient undergoing open heart surgery.
Patients depart with a personal CD that doctors use as a guide during surgery.
The next stop was the operating room itself, where the staff showed us all the machinery used to support patients during surgery. The surgeon gets to pick the music. We walked past the intensive care unit where patients are taken immediately after surgery. For at least 24 hours, patients have their own nurses who monitor their progress. When they're ready, patients are moved to a private room.