Cardiothoracic Surgery

 
This story that I came across today really struck me. There are so many pediatric patients who need cardiothoracic surgery, usually because they have congenital anomalies of the heart that are incompatible with life if they don't undergo surgery or for some other medical reason. I've seen a few  babies who need cardiothoracic surgery and just today, our team added another one onto the schedule. I'd like to believe that surgery programs in the United States are adequately trained to perform these highly complex surgeries as finishing a pediatrics cardiothoracic surgery fellowship is an extremely long ordeal, probably one of the longest in the medical profession. Unfortunately, after watching this video, that may not be the case. That's not to say that there is never a risk to these operations; in fact, the risk of complications from surgeries can be quite high. I'd just like to believe that when parents consent their babies to invasive surgery, it's to a program where the surgeons are well-practiced and where risk is minimized to be as low as possible.