The trauma unit at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania is not for the faint of heart.
Engineering sophomore Kathryn Downes learned that the hard way last weekend.
While participating in the Penn Women's Biomedical Society program that gives students the opportunity to shadow HUP trauma doctors, she was asked to cut a victim's suture - the wire used to sew up a patient's wounds.
"It was really scary," she said. "They just handed us scissors and were like, 'go for it.'"
College junior Rosa Cui, who organized the event this year, said each student takes on a four-hour shift at the hospital on a weekend, which is "when all the fun things happen."
She said many undergraduates have no sense of what it is like to be in a hospital setting.
"This is a really great opportunity for girls to see how medicine can be applied in the real world," she explained.
HUP trauma program manager Anne Marie Podgorski said it is important for students to see how physicians give patients "the life-saving care that they need" in stressful situations.
A trauma center is different from community medical centers and emergency rooms, Podgorski said, because only a trauma center can provide definitive treatment 24/7 - for instance, an orthopedic surgeon is always on hand.
Downes called the experience "exciting."
She did not participate in the procedures for the most part, but did don a pair of scrubs and listen to a doctor explain what he was doing as he treated patients, including one with a fractured skull and a woman who had tried to kill herself.
Cui explained that during her shift last year, a man came in with a gash in his head from a beer bottle, and someone the year before had seen a gunshot wound.
College junior Olivia Coffey said that during her shift last Saturday, she helped transfer one patient from a stretcher onto the CAT scan bed. She was also allowed to cut another patient's jeans.
"You see some crazy stuff," said Cui. "You're up close and personal."
Coffey said the most difficult part of the experience for her was watching the doctors operate on an old woman who had fallen down the stairs from drinking too much and gashed the side of her head.
"It was just extremely bloody and I'm not the best person with blood," she said, adding that she "started to see spots."
However, Coffey said it was interesting to see the different people who came into the unit and to listen to the stories they had to tell.
"I think [the experience] helped me understand what kind of doctor I want to be and how I want to interact with patients," she said.
Students agreed that the experience was unique.
After all, as Coffey said, "When else are you going to cut someone's jeans off?"
