Mark Plaster, M.D., founder and executive editor of Emergency Physicians Monthly, writes about romance, reality and the passage of hard years in the E.R.‘”I have to admit, though, it was pretty cool the first time I did a thoracotomy in the ED,’ I continued, oblivious to her {wife’s} expression {as they dined in a fancy restaurant on Valentine’s Day}. ‘You know, it’s just one giant incision from the axilla all the way to the sternum. You insert your finger in one end of the incision and in one sweeping movement you can blunt dissect through the entire length of the intercostal muscles exposing the pleura. Open the pleura, crank on the rib retractors, and presto, you have the whole chest cavity open to you.’
”I thought of continuing my dinner time didactic but I emerged from my reminiscing to see my wife shaking her head and hands at the same time. At first I thought it was some weird tremor.”
