where'd his face go?

so there's this episode of grey's anatomy where this little boy is really scared to go into surgery because he doesn't know what's going to go on. one of the doctors (george o'malley) asks for special permission to be able to take this little boy into an OR to see a surgery. it's supposed to be a really easy, clean surgery. a laparoscopic appy or something like that. something where he wouldn't actually see anything.

anyway, george accidentally takes the little boy into the wrong OR and the little boy sees what i got to see recently during my clinical nursing rotation through the OR.

what is it that this little boy and i saw?? well, take a little look for yourself. if you just can't wait, scroll ahead through the youtube video to around 1:00.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeekk!!!!!!

yeah, that's right. i got to see the process of surgeons taking someone's face off. while it wasn't exactly what it looks like in grey's, it's the same general idea. they just incise up and around from ear to ear and then start working away at pulling down. i got to see about 5 hours of this. when i left, they still weren't done! they were still working around the eyes! 

isn't that truly amazing? seriously! how in the heck did someone ever figure out that you could peel someone's face off and then put it back on. and who in the heck was the first person who consented to allow doctors to do that? 

i wonder sometimes if we sometimes go too far in medicine and take on a god-like role in preserving life when naturally, life shouldn't exist. that in itself is a topic for another day. it's just amazing how many things we can do and how many things we've been able to figure out about the human body. 

i'm so happy i'm doing what i'm doing now. i love it!