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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, Snapadavis, I'm sharing something special this week. It's an episode of the podcast, What It's Like To Be, from author Dan Heath. In every episode, Dan speaks to someone from a different profession. an aircraft carrier commander, a Christmas tree flower, and he asks, what is it like to do what they do? Like, how do the linemen know it's safe to grab wire carrying thousands of volts?
What does the diplomat do when an entire embassy has to evacuate overnight? Or how does an aerospace engineer handle the seven minutes of terror that decide whether a Mars rover lands safely? If you've ever met someone whose work you were curious about, this is the show for you.
Here, Dan asks a brain surgeon about the most harrowing part of a brain surgery, why he operates on people's brains while they're awake, and his remarkable path to the operating room. If you dig it, find more episodes of What It's Like To Be wherever you get your podcasts. How should I refer to you? What do you prefer?
You know, I can go for almost anything. My full name is Alfredo Quiñones Inocosa. Some people can pronounce it, some people cannot. And this is why people began to call me Dr. Q.
Dr. Q is a brain surgeon and chair of neurosurgery at the Mayo Clinic's Florida campus. He's got an absolutely astonishing life story, which we'll get to later. But first, I want to zoom in on one of his surgical days. He says his work begins long before he steps into the operating room.
So the moment someone sends me a picture about their scan, their surgery begins to happen in my brain. The potential complications, the potential dangers, the issues that can become catastrophic.
On every surgery day, he follows a careful routine.
I like to come in early in the morning. I like to review all the films, review my notes about the patient and family.
Most of Dr. Q's surgeries involve removing brain tumors. And in the morning, as he studies the images, he's mapping out the challenges ahead.
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Chapter 2: What is Dr. Q's approach to preparing for brain surgery?
It's that fine line between life and death that gives you the pause, the preoccupation, the adrenaline to make sure that all your senses are hyper, not just acute, but are hyper acute. So time passes. slows down. Your ability to see, hear, multitask, it gets super enhanced. And it's that adrenaline, in my opinion, that allows you to do things that are sometimes considered to be very challenging.
For instance, the moment that something goes wrong, which has happened to me after you've done 5,000 surgeries, You know, there's been moments where suddenly something changes quite rapidly. A blood vessel explodes. The vitals change. A patient has a heart attack. The heart stops. You name it. Anything. And at those moments, your adrenaline goes through the roof.
Your heart goes to 180 beats per minute. And yet, you have to remain calm.
Paint us a picture of what the operating room is like for you. Is it quiet? Are you playing music? How many people are in the room?
I tell you, this is the operating room for me. is like an orchestra, is like a symphony. Because if you listen to the sounds of about 20 to 25 people moving around the operating room quietly, the anesthesiologist, the machine beeping, the machine breathing for the patient sometimes,
If you then go on to the side and you look at the neurologists that are helping me monitor the brain function with electrophysiology, and you listen to their keyboards as they're entering information, or the squiggly lines that are beeping also, it sort of makes some music. And then you listen to the scrap text, the circulating nurses moving equipment, and that sound is like the percussion.
you know, in a band. And if you listen to the steps, you know, of the people moving around quietly in the upper room, when you listen to the scrubs rubbing, you can listen to all that and it becomes the most beautiful music you can possibly imagine.
What are the tools that you have at your disposal? Like, what are you holding or wearing as you operate? Well, several things.
I have high magnification glasses. They're called loops, you know, and a headlight. And once I get deeper into the brain, I bring a microscope that it is more expensive than my house. You know, it gets in there and gives me amazing light and a microscope that I can control with my mouth.
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Chapter 3: What tools does a brain surgeon use during surgery?
Dr. Q found a place to thrive and thousands of families are lucky to have received his care. Identifying the talents that a patient could not stand to lose. Probing the brain to distinguish invader from host. Performing in the symphony of the operating room. And sharing the news with desperate relatives that their loved ones came through okay. Folks, that's what it's like to be a brain surgeon.
That's episode 45.
So we have to sort of negotiate food and what does it mean to respect the patient's right to not want to eat or I want to eat. I don't care if I'm diabetic. I want a milkshake or I want to eat the slice of cake. And to say, just let him eat. Let her eat. Let her enjoy.
If you want a doctor, but for animals, we've got an episode featuring a veterinarian who is a great veterinarian.
It was a really pivotal moment for me in my life. And I've never stopped, you know, again, asterisks, not mosquitoes or roaches or ants or insects, but other living creatures. I've never stopped caring about them and really wanting the best for them.
And if you want something outside the medical field completely, we've got lots of those. Start with episode two featuring a couples therapist.
You know, inevitably somewhere I get cornered on long runs, long rides. Anytime on like an airplane, someone finds out that I'm a marriage therapist and it is immediately just like a loss of the next two hours of my life and not getting paid for it.
This episode was produced by Matt Purdy. I'm Dan Heath. Thanks for listening.
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