My experience in the hospital

My name is Jarrod Cornejo, and I am a Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering student at CSU!

I spent seven weeks last summer working at the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, Colorado. I worked for a week in each of the below hospital modalities learning just how surgeons, physicians, nurses, and engineers save patient lives! 

I applied for the CSU Clinical Immersion Program through the School of Biomedical Engineering and interviewed for the position. I spoke about my experience working on engineering projects, my passion for the medical field, and my prior experience in interpersonal care as a lifeguard.

Work with care givers and patients to develop a new senior design project to improve a problem faced by the hospital.

My experience in the operating room

I saw an open heart surgery to replace a patient’s Mitral Valve!

In a procedure called a Trans-Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR), a surgeon can implant an artificial aortic valve in your heart by making a small incision in your leg and feeding a catheter through your femoral artery. Thanks to this medical innovation, what was once a long and intense open heart surgery is now a simple procedure that leaves the patient free to go home after just a few days in the hospital!  

Observed a total hip replacement!

There are prosthetic hips that heal by allowing bone to naturally grow into them!

Observed the removal of the lower lobe of the left lung in a procedure called a Uniport Video Assisted Thoracoscopy 

Thanks to a wound opening device created by biomedical engineers, a surgeon can remove an entire lobe of your lung through a single incision about the size of this line: ________________________________

Observed a brain tumor removed from the frontal lobe of a patient in a procedure called a craniotomy   

Biomedical engineers created a surgical pen that uses ultrasound technology to implode cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact!     

my experience out of the operating room

Fixed the pressure transducer on an intravenous (IV) pump

Helped deliver a robotic baby at the UCHealth medical simulation center. Neonatal nurses use this technology to prepare for the varying challenges of delivering a baby.

[Delivering a robotic baby at the UCHealth simulation cener. I named him Allen!]