I’ve had the clamshell done to myself and I’m one of the miracles that made it

I was a surgical tech and cardiothoracic was my favorite surfery to scrub in on. I was exoecting to see a thoracotomy.

So fascinating! The most amazing learning experience I had in nursing school was my Pathophysiology prof (an ICU nurse for 30 years) tell us the story of her younger brother being saved by this. She was 22 working in the icu. Her brother was working in a mall and stepped into a box crusher machine to try and flatten some boxes by taking them apart to make room for more. He yelled something to his coworker and he thought he yelled to turn the machine on. He went through the machine down to his pelvis and was bleeding out. Miraculously there happened to be a conference for surgeons going on in the mall and 2 amazing surgeons performed a thoracotomy which kept him alive. He passed 3 months later in the same icu she was working at but this allowed their family time to hold him and say goodbye. She told this story while teaching us the physiology of what was happening throughout, through many tears. Most amazing teacher I’ve ever had.

The more I learn about the human body, the more I’m amazed by it! Although I’m not in med school or pursuing medicine, I love learning about how our body works and how people save it. It’s legitimately mind blowing material.

I am a firefighter/paramedic who has treated several GSW/stab wound patients who have benefited from this procedure. Five patients I personally treated have survived this procedure with full neurological recovery. The ages ranged from 7 years old to 68 years old. All had penetrating injuries to the chest/abdomen.

I’m an OR nurse working weekend nights at a facility that has recently become a Trauma II hospital. I’ve helped the the Trauma Surgeon with a thoracotomy in the ED. Unfortunately the patient didn’t make it. Your video has been very helpful in better understanding some of the details that take place. Thanks

Good idea to drill/practice this procedure because it’s rare in most EDs. ER RN since 1985

Thank you for this!!

Plastics nurse here, found your videos from a rec from KZfaq on the the hailey Bieber situation. Fell into the KZfaq rabbit hole and happy I did! Love your videos. Super informative for a lifelong lover of learning 👌🏼

Keep making these videos Doctor.

What a great video, I have seen this only one time in my 31 year career, brought back several memories. Thank you 🙏

it attractive and easy to understand, need more on trauma surgery

Really interesting video! I'm not a trauma surgeon, but I've worked in EMS for about 7 years and have seen this procedure in action a few times in the emergency department. Unfortunately none of these attempts were successful, but it's certainly a high stress moment for everyone involved

Hi Dr Hilsden, my name is Audry Wright. I have survived this surgery actually a full “clamshell”. I was involved in a head on collision in June of 2022. Thank God & surgeons I am still alive and well!

Iv had one of these. It worked funny enough thank you nhs.

Hey this video was really great. I would like to see more videos on difficult procedures with high risks.

Hi Dr. Hilsden, premed undergrad from UCLA here. Loved the video your channel is awesome! Hope you keep making these videos

Excellent instruction. I won’t try this at home.😄

I found the most interesting part of your lecture the discussion which led to you saying you would generally proceed with a thoracotomy for a blunt force ED arrest, this is not the case in the UK and Aus. In my experience US surgeons are generally more willing to operate, I was amazed for instance at some of the brain tumours which are tackled over there with very minimal possibility for quality life extension. Not to say one way is more or less correct than the other, I do think 'when not to operate' is more highly stressed in commonwealth nations though so it is always good to hear how a US surgeon approaches such matters.

Hi Dr. Hilsden, I was wondering if you would ever considering dissecting an article in your field or that you might be working on yourself. I would love to see into your thoughts when reading popular research in surgery just as you mentioned here with the paper regarding penetrating trauma with pre-hospital arrest. It would also just be very insightful and educational to have a walk through on how a doctor analyzes research when they are studying. Thank you! P.S. I appreciate your videos so much. they are very educational and interesting!

Hello Dr. Hilsden. Thank you for the video! I was curious about how trauma surgeons interact with other surgical specialties. So once you do the clamshell thoracotomy and get the patient back, would you repair the injury to the heart (i.e. a hole in the heart) yourself or would you need to consult cardiothoracic surgery in order to repair an injury of that nature. Thank you again!

Hey Dr. Hilsden thank you for the very interesting video on thoracotomies. If you’re still looking for suggestions i would love to see some tips and advice for students rotating through surgery. What to focus on. Where would be a good source to read up on cases (I’ve heard surgical recall was good). Thanks again.

Sir, firstly thank you for the great video. I had a doubt I was hoping you could clarify. in all of the mentioned indications of the procedure, is there a role of doing a needle pericardiocentesis? If so, under what circumstances would we consider doing an emergency thoracotomy over doing a needle pericardiocentesis?

Great video! It's interesting that the "craziest" procedure a trauma surgeon performs can also be done by emergency medicine physicians (probably speaks to the fact that crazy != difficult or risky, since the patient is dead anyway). How do you feel about EM physician performed emergency thoracotomies and have there been any studies comparing outcomes to those performed by surgeons?

is it harder to do this on a patient that has a heart murmur?

Hey Dr Hilsden. Has being exposed to death and trauma on a near daily basis shifted your philosophy of life, or the way you look at many of the things that we usually stress about in our daily lives? Or do you prefer not to think about such things and instead purely focus on your craft and work ?

Ive had an open lateral thorocatomy (i think i said that right) incision underneath my arm between my ribs. Was the most painful think as far as recovery compared to my other surgeries. Permanent fractured ribs

how long does this procedure take?

my sister survived an anurithom not sure I'm using the right word it's like a heart attack but in the Aorta and she described it as very painful and wanted to died cause of it. so what happens to the heart during this type of medical complication?

¿In case of a cardiac tamponade, what scenario would cause you to go for an ED thoracotomy instead of a pericardiocentesis?

Sir I love your video . In future I want to become a troma surgent . Please suggest me some things that can help me to be a better troma surgent

I work in healthcare IT, I was a paramedic student 30 years ago but I remember some things and I do understand this means I'm an idiot. I'm only guessing what an aortic cross clamp is, but I do know that the carotid arteries come off top of the aortic arch so maintaining blood flow to the brain might be preserved by distally stopping flow through the aorta. Aside from trauma, maybe a descending aortic aneurism might be a reason to do that? Am I on the right track? I'm always curious about these things, but more importantly can I have a DNR specifically forbid an aortic cross clamp intervention? Am I right to have serious doubts about quality of life outcomes here?

has anyone blood out after just wondering

You should react to so, want to be trauma surgeon from medical school insider youtube channel

Resuscitative thoracotomy is a misnomer, if I am cracking your chest in the ED you are likely not going to make it (

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