Dana Hills student gets to be a "transplant surgeon for a day"

As one of five winners of an essay contest, David Santellan, a sophomore at Dana Hills High School, became a "transplant surgeon for the day" at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange. The program was sponsored by the hospital as well as OneLegacy, a non-profit organization dedicated to saving lives through organ and tissue donation.

How did you learn about the OneLegacy essay contest?

Through a program I participate in school called Health Medical Occupation or HMO. HMO is a program that introduces students to all the different fields and specialties within the medical profession. They bring in doctors to talk to us and organize field studies to hospitals. When I learned that winners of the OneLegacy contest would get to shadow transplant surgeons, I filled out the application and wrote an essay. They picked five of us to participate.

What did you say in your essay?

I talked about how, as a child, I always wanted to be a doctor. As I got older, I became more interested in surgery. Whereas a doctor might treat a patient over the course of a couple of years, a surgeon treats the patients right then and there. The fact that you can save someone's life right away really intrigues me.

Describe your day at the hospital.

We arrived at St. Joseph Hospital at 9 a.m. We met a woman, Simera Nichols, from OneLegacy who gave us background information on the day and introduced us to a nurse. We changed into scrubs and did rounds with the nurse. As we toured the hospital, we got to see all the different rooms – the dialysis center and various operating rooms. Then we entered the surgery room. I stood just one yard behind the surgeon. When I walked in, the doctor had his hand inside the patient's stomach. There was a camera inserted through the patient's belly button. The surgeon cut a piece of the colon off, stitched it back up and inserted it back into the patient.

Did you get to speak with the surgeon?

After the surgery, Dr. Ruzics, the surgeon, talked to us a bit more about being a transplant surgeon. He told us that there is a real shortage of transplant surgeons in this country. He talked a little bit about how hard it can be to talk to parents of the patients who become organ donors. Patients can be classified as brain dead and still be breathing. When parents see their children breathing, they refuse to believe they are dead. I never considered being a transplant surgeon before witnessing the operation, but my experience that day really blew my mind.

How does a student enroll in the HMO program?

You apply for the program, and if you are accepted, you take special classes such as HMO Health Science and HMO English. It's a four-year program. The work that the HMO program demands increases over the years, however, and by senior year, many of the kids drop out.

What are your responsibilities as an HMO student?

As a freshman, we all had to contact a doctor or a dentist and set up a time to have them come in and talk to our class. This year we have to shadow someone in the medical profession and write an essay about it. We also have to volunteer for 40 hours at a medical facility.