Georgia perfusionist Rick Raley wants to extend the lives of some fellow
human beings.
"I love being able to provide a longer life for people. I love the cohesiveness
of the heart team. Everyone works and contributes energy to prolong the life
of a stranger. What better contribution to mankind could someone ask for?"
Modern medicine and new technologies allow surgeries to repair congenital
heart defects in infants and transplant hearts, lungs and livers. Plus, equipment
is available to provide support for failing hearts until surgery becomes feasible.
Raley enjoys applying what he's learned about life support directly to
human beings. He makes life-or-death decisions without a second guess. And
every case and every patient are different. "No two runs are exactly alike
-- just like you and I are different people. There's absolutely no room for
error on your part because the consequences are irreversible."
The more she discovered about cardiovascular perfusion, the more Roshi
Etemad-Moghadam got excited. She had a degree in biology and a career as a
research technician, but made the change. Now she's a perfusionist in Baltimore
and an educator for a 16-month perfusion science program.
"This profession is high stress with irregular hours. But it's exciting,
challenging and never boring," Etemad-Moghadam says.
"I work primarily with cardiac surgery patients -- both adult and children
-- in the operating room. I'm also involved with heart, lung and liver transplants,
blood conservation in the operating room, and setting and monitoring some
long-term devices used for life support."
Suzanne Allaire coordinates and teaches the profusion program at the Michener
Institute. As a perfusionist, she's a member of the cardiac team at a downtown
hospital. Allaire performs a sufficient number of cases to maintain both Canadian
and U.S. certifications.
"My duties include setting up cardiopulmonary bypass circuits and operating
the equipment -- the heart-lung machine -- for routine adult cardiac cases
such as coronary artery bypass grafting, and valve repair or replacement."
Controlling the patient's temperature and blood pressure, monitoring fluid
balance, administering drugs as required, controlling oxygenation, monitoring
and adjusting acid balance, charting the events of the bypass
and administering blood products as required are some of her other duties.
"It's important to remember that a perfusionist works under the direction
of a physician at all times. It's also important to note that the duties of
a perfusionist vary from center to center."
As an educator, Allaire coordinates the cardiovascular perfusion program
and teaches many of its courses. That means preparing student timetables,
curriculum development, scheduling guest lecturers and responding to students'
needs. Classroom responsibilities include teaching applied chemistry, acid-base
balance, hemodynamic monitoring and perfusion theory and practice.
"I really enjoy the dual role of educator and perfusionist," Allaire explains.
"It provides a tremendous amount of variety, challenge and satisfaction."