Surgical Skills club hosts porcine cardiothoraCic surgery workshop

Samo’s Surgical Skills Club, run by president Alex Sebastian (’26), hosted a cardiothoracic surgery workshop on Friday, Feb. 25. The event was in collaboration with Paul Chang, a world-renowned educator for students interested in surgery. Chang, the Cardiac Surgery Surgical Skill Education Center founder at Stanford University, has over 35 years of experience in the field of medicine. In 2013, he founded the American Academy of Medicine & Surgery, furthering his appreciation for education, with his expertise being in surgical skills education. 

Alex Sebastian / Contributor

With the intent to bring accessible surgery education to students, the Surgical Skills Club provides real-life experience in the medical field at an amateur level, cultivating students’ interest in medicine by providing them with the chance to explore their passion for surgery. Feb 25. from 4-8 p.m., students had a chance at practicing porcine (pig) heart dissection, vessel ligation and suturing. Sebastian remarked on the unique opportunity presented to students in the club.

“What's unique about this is that we are offering an extremely high level of surgical education to high school students,” Sebastian said. “Our high school students have also built up skill sets more advanced than a lot of medical students or even surgical residents.”