INTERVIEW and GIVEAWAY
Surgeon's Story:
Inside OR-1 with One of America's Top Pediatric Heart Surgeons
Inside OR-1 with One of America's Top Pediatric Heart Surgeons
by Mark Oristano
Surgeon's Story by Mark Oristano is currently on tour with Pump Up Your Book. The tour stops here today for my interview with the author, an excerpt, and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
What is it like to hold the beating heart of a two-day old child in your hand? What is it like to counsel distraught parents as they make some of the most difficult decisions of their lives?
Noted pediatric heart surgeon Dr. Kristine Guleserian has opened up her OR, and her career, to author Mark Oristano to create Surgeon’s Story - Inside OR-6 With a top Pediatric Heart Surgeon.
Dr. Guleserian’s life, training and work are discussed in detail, framed around the incredibly dramatic story of a heart transplant operation for a two-year old girl whose own heart was rapidly dying. Author Mark Oristano takes readers inside the operating room to get a first-hand look at pediatric heart surgeries most doctors in America
That’s because Dr. Guleserian is recognized as one of the top pediatric heart surgeons in America
As preparation to write this stirring book, Oristano spent hours inside the operating room at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas watching Guleserian perform actual surgeries that each day were life-or-death experiences. Readers will be with Dr. Guleserian on her rounds, meeting with parents, or in the Operating Room for a heart transplant.
Oristano is successful sportscaster and photographer and has made several appearances on stage as an actor. He wrote his first book A Sportscaster’s Guide to Watching Football: Decoding America’s Favorite Game, and continues to volunteer at Children’s Medical Center
"We hear a lot about malpractice and failures in medical care," says Oristanto, "but I want my readers to know that parts of the American health care system work brilliantly. And our health care system will work even better if more young women would enter science and medicine and experience the type of success Dr. Guleserian has attained."
Readers will find all the drama, intensity, humor, and compassion that they enjoy in their favorite fictionalized medical TV drama, but the actual accounts in Surgeon’s Story are even more compelling. One of the key characters in the book is 2-year-old Rylynn who was born with an often fatal disorder called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and was successfully treated by Dr. Guleserian.
Book Video
Excerpt
The first task is to examine the heart to see if the preoperative diagnosis is correct. Dr. G uses delicate instruments to retract portions of the tricuspid valve and examine the extent of the defect of the ventricular septum, the wall between the two ventricles. She determines the exact size and shape of the VSD and trims the segment of pericardium she saved earlier in preservative. She cuts miniscule pieces of the pericardial tissue and sutures them along the walls of the VSD, creating anchor points for the actual covering. Each suturing is an intricate dance of fingers and forceps, needle and thread. Dr. G works with a small, hooked needle, grasping it with forceps, inserting the needle through the tissue, releasing and re-gripping with the forceps, pulling the hair-thin suture through, using a forceps in her other hand to re-grip the needle again and repeat. The pericardial tissue being sewn over the VSD has to be secure, and it has to stand up to the pressure of blood pumping through Claudia’s heart at the end of the operation. This isn’t like repairing knee ligaments, which can rest without use and heal slowly. Claudia’s heart is going to restart at the end of this operation, and whatever has been sewn into it has to hold, and work, the first time. The VSD repair involves cautious work around the tricuspid valve, and their proximity is a concern because the valve opens and closes along the ventricular septum with each beat. Dr. G and her team find that it’s preferable to actually divide the cords of the tricuspid valve to better expose the VSD. After the patch is fully secured, the tricuspid valve is repaired.
Things don’t go as smoothly during the attempt to repair the pulmonary valve. When Dr. G looks inside Claudia’s heart she discovers that the pulmonary valve is not nearly large enough, and it’s malformed. It only has two flaps where there should be three. She repairs it by what she later says is “just putting in a little transannular patch.”
Here’s what it’s like to “just” put a transannular patch on the pulmonary artery of a child as small as Claudia:
First, take a piece of well-cooked elbow macaroni. Tuck it away in a bowl of pasta that has a bit of residual marinara sauce still floating around in it. Take several different sized knitting needles. Slowly, without damaging the macaroni, insert one of the knitting needles into it to see if you can gauge the width of the macaroni on which you’re operating. Then using a delicate, incredibly sharp blade, cut a small hole in the piece of elbow macaroni, maybe a little larger than the height of one of the letters on the page in front of you. Now use pliers to pick up a small needle with thread as fine as human hair in it. Use another pliers to pick up a tiny piece of skin that looks like it was cut from an olive, so thin that light shines through it. Take the needle and sew the olive skin on to the hole you’ve cut in the piece of macaroni. When you’re finished sewing, hook up the piece of macaroni to a comparable size tube coming from the faucet on the kitchen sink, and see if you can run some water through the macaroni without the patch leaking.
That’s the food analogy. Those are the dimensions Dr. G worked with as she patched Claudia’s pulmonary artery. She made it a little wider to give it a chance to work more efficiently, to transport more blood with less blockage, requiring less work for the right ventricle so that the built-up heart muscle could return to a more normal size. It wasn’t the repair she’d planned to make, but it was the most suitable under the circumstances, and it gave Claudia her best chance.
Before restoring Claudia’s natural circulation, the team makes certain that no air is in the heart or the tubes from the pump, because it could be pumped up to the brain. Air in the brain is not a safe thing. When all the repairs are completed, Claudia is rewarmed and weaned from the bypass machine. She was on pump for 114 minutes and her aorta was clamped for 77 minutes, not an extraordinary length of time in either case.
Claudia’s heart starts up on its own, with a strong rhythm. With her heart beating again the beeps, and the peaks and valleys on her monitor return. All is well. An echo technician wheels a portable machine into the OR and puts a sensor down Claudia’s throat where it lodges behind her heart to perform a transesophageal echo —a more detailed view than the normal, external echo. Everything looks good. Chest drains are put in to handle post-operative drainage, and wires are placed for external pacemakers, should anything go wrong with Claudia’s heart rhythm during her recovery from surgery. Dr. G draws Claudia’s ribcage back together with stainless steel wires, perfectly fastened and tightly tucked down.
Claudia and the surgical team return to the CVICU, and Dr. G monitors her reentry to the unit, making sure the nurses understand Claudia’s condition and the proper procedures to be followed for the next 24 hours. From there, Dr. G enters a small room tucked away from the noise of the unit to meet with the family. Claudia’s mother, father, and aunt are waiting. Dr. G sees Mom wiping tears away.
“Are you crying? Oh, no, no need to be crying, everything is fine.” Her wide smile reassured Mom who put away her tissues.
[Want more? Click below to read a longer excerpt.]
Praise for the Book
"This is an uplifting book with its own heart of solid gold." ~ John J. Kelly
"The book is full of photos of Dr. G at work (and in life), diagrams of heart problems, and even case notes. It’s a very compelling read. I highly recommend this book." ~ Pam G
"From the very first page right up to the climactic ending, this book will entertain you with the real life wit, humor, and drama that populates the world of pediatric cardiac surgery." ~ Rebar
"Surgeons Story takes you into the operating room of Dr. Gulesarian, a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon, and gives a brief glance into the emotions and trials of families with children who suffer from congenital heart disease. After reading the book I have an even deeper appreciation for the sacrifice and service Dr G has given to her patients and their parents!" ~ Suzie Murphree
"True life stories about an amazing woman who saves children in the operating room. Wonderful character sketches that humanize our 'health care system'. The race to bring a heart to Rylynn had my heart pounding - reads like a thriller! Oristano tells an important tale here." ~ J. Watts
Interview With the Author
Hi Mark, thanks for joining me today to discuss your new book, Surgeon’s Story.
What sparked the idea for this book?
I’ve been a volunteer at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas for 20 years. I got to know Kristine Guleserian, one of our pediatric heart surgeons, and the more I learned about her, the more I thought her story was worth telling.
How do you hope this book affects its readers?
I hope we’ll convince a few young readers to think of careers in medicine or the sciences. And I hope we can show people that, even though there are terrible problems with America’s health care system, there are parts of it that run brilliantly.
What is your writing routine?
Actually, I pretty much wait until I’m facing a deadline, and then I get going. It’s the journalist in me.
How did you get your book published?
Self-published, with Authority Publishing in California.
What advice do you have for someone who would like to become a published writer?
Start writing. Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do it. Published and flawed is better than perfect and on your hard drive.
Did you like reading when you were a child?
Yes. I came from a very literary home. I was reading fourth grade books in the first grade.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
It wasn’t so much a case of wanting. It was just something I was always good at. I’ve written for radio, television, newspaper, stage, film, and books.
Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?
We’ve heard from many readers since Surgeon’s Story was published, and they are all very complimentary about the story we’ve told. Many of them either were heart patients themselves, have kids with heart problems, or work in health care. It’s always great to hear from readers.
What can we look forward to from you in the future?
I’ll tell you when it gets here!
No worries! Thanks for taking the time to stop by today, Mark.
About the Author
Mark Oristano has been a professional writer/journalist since the age of 16.
After growing up in suburban New York Texas Texas Christian University
Mark has worked with notable broadcasters, including Verne Lundquist and Oprah Winfrey, and as a sportscaster for the Dallas Cowboys Radio Network and Houston Oilers Radio Network. He has covered Super Bowls and other major sports events throughout his career. He was part of Ron Chapman’s legendary morning show on KVIL-FM in Dallas
In 2002 Oristano left broadcasting to pursue his creative interests, starting a portrait photography business and becoming involved in theater, including summer productions with Shakespeare Dallas. He follows his daughter Stacey’s film career, who has appeared in such shows as Friday Night Lights and Bunheads.
A veteran stage actor in Dallas, Mark Oristano was writer and performer for the acclaimed one-man show And Crown Thy Good: A True Story of 9/11.
Oristano authored his first book, A Sportscaster’s Guide to Watching Football: Decoding America’s Favorite Game. A Sportcaster’s Guide offers inside tips about how to watch football, including stories from Oristano’s 30-year NFL career, a look at offense, defense, and special teams, and cool things to say during the game to sound like a real fan.
In 2016, Oristano finished his second book, Surgeon’s Story, a true story about a surgeon that takes readers inside the operating room during open heart surgery. His second book is described as a story of dedication, talent, training, caring, resilience, guts, and love.
In 1997, Mark began volunteering at Children’s Medical Center Dallas
Mark is married and has two adult children and two grandchildren.
Giveaway
Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card.
Links
