WORKDAY In The Operating Room

Today at 7am I received a call to go to a military hospital in my city. An anesthesia machine was malfunctioning. For those who don't know, anesthesia machines are life support equipment that induce a state of anesthesia in the patient so that surgery can be performed painlessly.

What is the role of a biomedical engineer in the operating room?

The role of a biomedical engineer in an operating room is to maintain the operability and proper functioning of all medical equipment inside the operating room.

When a person enters an operating room, he/she trusts that the entire system is working properly. It is important that this person has real confidence that he/she is in a safe place. Therefore, before any surgical intervention, all medical equipment in the area should be checked and tested. The most important are :

• electrosurgical unit

• vacuum system (vacuum unit)

• surgical table

• Surgical Lamps

• Anesthesia machine

Protocol must be followed. First check all medical equipment:

Although I had been called to repair the anesthesia machine, the first thing I did was to check all the equipment inside the operating room. Then, when I checked that all the equipment was working properly, I started to check the anesthesia machine.

The problem or failure of the anesthesia machine was due to a pneumatic valve that needed to be calibrated. After I performed the calibration I did other tests and the machine was working normally and without risk to the patient.

Another job completed with good results:

After finishing the work and verifying that everything was working well, I went to the coordinator of the surgical area to inform her that my work was ready.

There is no better feeling than the one you get when you do something well and you can get some pay for it. No matter what you do or what you dedicate yourself to, the important thing is to do it in the best possible way because mediocrity can ruin you.

I want to give a special thanks to my sponsors and the #JustWrite community for allowing the space to be able to publish content about what we love to do. I have nothing more to say but to wish you all a happy day and success.