Project Update!

Last Saturday I got the incredible opportunity to volunteer at an animal hospital near my house called Family Dog & Cat Hospital. They actually had to preform an emergency surgery on a one year old Bulldog named Whiskey. Whiskey came in with a swollen shoulder that had been getting progressively worse for the past three months. Dr. Garcia thought it was a foreign body embedded in his shoulder and thought it mandatory to go into surgery given that Whiskey's temperature was rather high.
The staff got Whiskey all prepped for surgery and allowed me to insert his catheter for IV fluids and anesthesia. Dr. Garcia even let me make the first cut!! It was only a couple inches, but still pretty awesome none the less.
Once we got Whiskey's shoulder open, we discovered that there was no foreign body in his shoulder. There was just a huge mass of inflamed fat and dead tissue. Dr. Garcia ended up making an incision site that was 10 inches long and 6 inches wide. That's how far out the inflammation had spread. Dr. Garcia removed all the of inflamed fat and dead tissue and set some aside to preform a culture on it.
The surgery itself lasted an hour and a half plus another half an hour to close up the incision site and set a tube in place for draining. Dr. Garcia's diagnoses for Whiskey ended up being chronic inflammation in the right shoulder. That was the most generic way of describing what was going on without being able to conduct further research.


These are pictures of Whiskey while he was being prepped for his surgery.

The tubes you see on the right hand side are the breathing tubes that Whiskey was hooked up to during the surgery. The yellow box on the table next to him monitored his blood oxygen levels and heart rate. The blood oxygen level had to stay above 94 or else he wouldn't be getting enough oxygen to support him. If that happened, the veterinarian technician would have to manually pump on air bag attached to the breathing machine to get the blood oxygen level back to a safe number.

This picture gives you a better view of the inflammation on Whiskey's right shoulder. That little red bump is where blood was actually dripping out when he came into the clinic. The incision site was originally going to be limited to the area around the bump, but ended up spreading to his entire shoulder and part of his stomach. It basically covered the whole shaved area. 

Blog 5b: Science Fair Proposal

1. LIfeguarding

2. How to effectively tread water while preforming a rescue in deep water. 

"Any sort of movement that allows the swimmer to do this can be classified as treading water, but it is more efficient to move the arms and legs in a specific fashion." 

"Treading Water." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Oct. 2012. Web. 05 Nov. 2012.

Drowning non-swimmers often splash and kick in an effort to stay above the surface but their lack of technique along with shortness of breath and the panic factor make this a very ineffective method of treading water. They will usually tire quickly and not be able to stay above the surface very long.

More experienced swimmers often find their own method of staying above the surface. These techniques often involve sculling, flutter kick, and other unofficial techniques of staying above the surface.

3. If a lifeguard uses the breast stroke form of treading water, then they will be able to more effectively hold themselves and the victim above of the water. 

4. To preform this experiment, I will go to my local YMCA and conduct an experiment using the lifeguards that work at the facility. They will be required to tread water for 3 minutes holding a 10 pound brick. They will do the experiment with each type of treading water, flutter kick, breast stroke kick, and the frog kick. The experiment will be conducted in heats by the method of treading water so that the lifeguards can have a couple minutes to rest. I am unsure how many lifeguards I will be conducting this experiment on because I have yet to see how many are willing to participate, but I do have permission from the YMCA to use their facility. 

5. Physics

Blog 9: Working EQ and Possible Answers

Essential Question:

When performing a rescue, is it best to remove the victim from where the incident occurred or leave them there and continue care?

I haven't decided to revise my EQ yet, but I am currently working on some other  questions. 

Possible Answers:

During a rescue, it is best to leave the victim at the scene of the incident because moving them could cause more injury and also spread blood and other bodily fluids around the facility.

A victim should be moved from the scene of the incident only if the surroundings prove to be a threat to both the lifeguard and victim.