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The Life of a Perfusionist
To-do list: pick up my groceries, hang up the washing, stop and
restart a human heart……
The official name for a BioMedicine student who
stops and restarts a
patient’s heart on a daily
basis is a Trainee Clinical
Perfusion Scientist. A. Pillai
is a twenty five yearold woman who works at
Oxford Hospital. She has
been training for this job for
the past four years.
A Perfusionist works with
the heart-lung machine and
they have to hook up a
patient to stop their heart;
deflating the lungs to allow
the surgeons to work in a
bloodless environment. This
could be for any heart
repair case such as coronary
artery bypass grafting to
aid bloodflow to the
heart or any aortic work.
Although stopping the heart
for bypass surgery is only
one of the jobs as a
Perfusion Scientist. They
also do cancer therapy,
warming up patients with
hypothermia symptoms
such as drowning victims or
even providing heart aid to
patients on the road,
primarily homeless people.
Being a Trainee Clinical
Perfusion Scientist is a great
job for many reasons but it
also requires a great deal of
work and dedication. A.
Pillai studied at King’s
College until she was
twenty one to receive her
Bachelor’s degree and
afterwards gained two
years worth of work
experience. Now she goes
to study once a month at
Oxford as she is still working
towards full qualification as
a Perfusionist. Even after 10
years of perfusing, some
Perfusion Scientists
continue to study at
University to receive a
Masters degree or a PhD.
But why is being a
Perfusionist so great? A.
Pillai explained the benefits
and disadvantages of her
job. For example, not many
people can say that they
have to stop a person’s
heart at work. In addition, it
is not a desk job, you need
to be ready and you need to
be on your feet at all times
especially if you are on call.
This means that during a
certain period of time, you
must be present at the
hospital; have to be
reachable anywhere
because you can be
contacted at any time to
come in and go into
theatre. So you would have
to reach the hospital to set
up machines that would
usually take hours in several
minutes. Unfortunately this
is a disadvantage of being a
Perfusionist. The hours
aren’t just long; they are
unsociable. This makes it
hard to have a social life. At
just twenty five that must
be quite a sacrifice.
A. Pillai said “It is nice to
know that we can make
such a difference in
people’s lives. But it is hard
knowing that we can’t save
everyone”. However she
also said that despite this, it
is an exhilarating
experience and it is made
all the more worthwhile
working with cardiac
surgeons at Oxford, who
are known as the best of
the best. “To be a Profusion
Scientist, you have to be at
a highintellectual level,
specifically because these
brilliant surgeons look to
Perfusionists for answers
during operations and you
need to be prepared.”
Stopping and restarting a
human aortic pump is no
picnic. With this occupation
comes an exorbitant
amount of stress. Routine
surgeries are normal, you
have the time, you have the
patience. On the other
hand, when an emergency
arises, all you feel is
pressure. This is because
people are yelling at you to
get things right and to get
them done fast, because
this is a person’s heart
you’re working with, you
can’t afford to make
mistakes. A Perfusionist has
a highly specialized and
technical role because
although the surgeon has
prepped the heart, nothing
can be done until the
patient is on bypass. This
means that not many
people can help you in
theatre unless they are a
fellow Perfusionist. Imagine
the pressure of keeping
someone alive yet giving
them a dosage of more
Potassium concentrate than
the lethal injection for
Capital Punishment?
Stopping someone’s heart is
even more complicate than
you thought.
One Sunday night at 9pm,
Miss Pillai was called to the
hospital because an
eighteen year-old girl had
overdosed on a drug called
Propanolol. The drug
wouldn’t kill this girl unless
it has been in her flow of
blood for approximately
eleven hours. When A. Pillai
reached the operating
theatre, the surgeons had
been doing chest
compressions (CPR) on the
girl for roughly three hours.
Those in charge wanted the
patient to go on bypass,
which meant the drug
would be no longer occupy
her body because there
would be a drainage of
blood as the heart would be
stopped. The eleven hours
were almost up and the
eighteen year-old was
starting to go into
cardiopulmonary arrest
which is when your blood
stops circulating around
your body effectively.
Therefore if the girl was to
be hooked up to the heartlung machine, her heart
would stop working for
some time whilst the rest of
the drug clears out of her
system. It was the
Perfusionist who has the
capability of doing so.
Around 10.30pm the girl
was put on bypass, until
4.30am when the Profusion
Scientist and the surgeons
checked on the girl’s heart
activity. Although there was
some electrical action,
there was no mechanical
movement, meaning the
heart was dead. It was also
the job of the Perfusionist
to take a teenage girl off life
support. So A. Pillai had to
turn off the bypass machine
and the eighteen year old
girl died. “That was quite
hard. The last thing you
want to do as a Profusionist
is not save a patient.”
The Life of a Perfusionist is
one that is always busy,
always exciting and filled
with an urgency that other
jobs just don’t seem to
possess. There are
positives, there are
negatives but the chance of
saving someone just makes
it all worth the trouble
because a human life is
more significant than a few
hours out clubbing with the
girls. Isn’t it?
By Alisha P.