St. Michael-Albertville Anatomy Goes under the Knife

teacher Erica Johnson’s anatomy and physiology class went a step beyond the classic earthworm dissection project Friday morning, when they were linked into a live streaming knee surgery from an Ohio operating room.

Close to 50 teenagers crowded into the room to watch the live surgery on the big screen, while surgeons explained, joked and took questions via the webcast. 

Anatomy students Jennifer Abendano and Alex Johnson both took human anatomy and physiology class for two trimesters this year with ambitions to enter into medical careers, and both said they found a lot of value in the live surgery viewing.

The surgery was right up Johnson’s alley for his future career goals, as he is considering options such as an athletic trainer or orthopedic surgeon. He said this experience made him even more interested in pursuing this path. As for Abendano, she said she wants to become a registered nurse, and this video gave her some things to think about as far as if she’d like to be involved in surgical procedures or not.

“I thought it was kind of shocking how they were sawing the bones off,” Abendano said.

“It definitely sounded like a chainsaw was just going to town on that knee,” Johnson added with a laugh.

Teacher Erica Johnson said the class worked in teams creating models of the human knee joint beforehand, but seeing the real deal is the biggest reinforcement for understanding how all the tendons, ligaments, muscles and bones come apart and then back together. As the surgeons went to work, they continued chatting amicably with the students and discussing topics such as recovery time, teamwork and even the best and worst options for surgical background music.