Pediatric ENT surgery with Dr. Rhonda Haymaker

The day started very fast paced. At 8am there was a surgery. This female patient had to undergo ears, nose and throat surgery. This was a lot of surgery on one patient, and many surgeons were needed for the series of surgeries. However, difficulty emerged when all of the eight surgeons ready to do surgery at the same time. Obviously someone did not schedule all of these surgeries properly causing a mess in the surgery room. So these doctors had to organize themselves and figure out the order of the surgeons to perform surgery. Dr. Haymaker, pediatric Ear Nose Throat Doctor, was third thus had time to check up on her other patient.

A cool thing about Dr. Haymaker is that she was a DePauw grad (chemistry and sociology double major). She went straight into medical school at Indiana University School of Medicine (like most DePauw grads) and from there residency and the rest is history. She is also wife of a DePauw grad (typical DePauw love connection) and a mother. Her children are in girl scouts!

After Dr. Haymaker finished her first operation, she proceeded to put ear tubes in another female patient. I had ear tubes in my ears when I was little so this was really cool to watch. This procedure looked very simple, but obviously is a lot harder than it seems (that's why she makes the big buck!). One thing she told me is that residency had a significant effect on both her procedure techniques and tools that she uses when doing her procedures. 

Next, I got to see another female patient undergo a tonsillectomy. I have never had a tonsillectomy and the only time I had see one was on As told my Ginger TV show. It was really cool. I did not know that tonsils could be so large. It was a cool yet bloody experience. Before the tonsillectomy, we saw the patient (awake) with her family. She was an adopted child so it was really cool to see this girl surrounded by her family and loved ones. Very sweet. 

The last operation that Dr. Haymaker did was on a newborn with a breathing problem. Dr. Haymaker had to deal with both this newborn patient and the patients. Apparently the birth was not planned between the couple and the woman's mother was less than patient and respectful to Dr. Haymaker. However, Dr. Haymaker focused on her goal: helping the patient.  The operation that we thought was going to take 5 hours only took 2 which was a nice surprise.