Printed on August 27, 2007 National Geographic Channel

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A heart-stopping experience

September 2, 2008 11:22 AM

Kendra Gahagan

Coordinating Producer

When we first met George Justice, we knew that in a few hours, we’d be peering into his gaping chest and staring at his beating heart. We were so grateful that George had graciously agreed to let us film his open-heart surgery. This man wasn’t only gracious – he was accommodating, having moved his surgery up several days so that it worked with our filming schedule. Only in Los Angeles, we thought.

It’s all in a day’s work, apparently, when your job is saving lives and repairing broken hearts.

As we donned our scrubs and surgical masks at Saint John’s Health Center well before sunrise, our whole team knew that we were about to experience something few people ever get to see without years of medical school. We would be filming -- not through glass, but hovering right beside the patient’s chest -- a coronary artery bypass operation. The hospital was not only allowing us incredible access in the operating room to film this surgery, but we would be doing so at the invitation of one of only a handful of female cardiothoracic surgeons in the world, Dr. Kathy Magliato. We would watch Dr. Magliato and her partner, Dr. John Robertson, do something routine for them but extraordinary to us: stop and re-start a patient’s heart to repair his many blocked arteries and save him from what they said was an almost certain premature death.

Once George was wheeled into the OR, he was anaesthetized quickly -- but by the time he was on the operating table and prepped for surgery, it was hard to remember there was a person under there. Sterile towels covered his face and entire torso except for a large rectangle perfectly framing the incision area. Next, the doctors effortlessly cut the incision down the middle of George’s chest. The sound of the sternal saw cutting through the breastbone lasted only a few seconds but would make a great addition to any horror movie soundtrack. Once the chest was opened, the doctors inserted a heavy, metal device to keep the rib cage spread apart enough for them to do their delicate work.

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