Posts by Frank Aprile
Merry Christmas From ‘Surfers & PDC!!
It’s been a tough Year for all of us. I started the year out in Augusta, GA, then off to Northern Indiana, then 6 months in Ann Arbor, MI, from there to Join a team in KY as well as a week in Hot Springs AR. Every place the same story- Perfusionists doing amazing work…
Read MorePerfusion Art: “1st Responders”
Perfusion Art: “1st Responders” Photographer: Frank Aprile, CCP, BBA, LP Equipment: I Phone 8+ Editing: Photoshop Narrative: Fighting Back!!! Giving Covid Hell! Time & Place: 2021 – Daniel Boone Country About The Artist: CCP Commentary: ICU Nurse Elaine– Doesn’t quit- Doesn’t quit her patients- and she doesn’t back down from Covid! She definitely marches the halls like a Marine Corps Drill Sgt.…
Read MoreA Locum’s ScrapBook: Hospital 58
Editor’s Note: As part of this series A Locum’s ScrapBook, I tried to detail every aspect of perfusion life that traveling contract perfusionists such as myself encounter during our travels to various contract sites. I think we all like to acknowledge the things in life that make it just a little easier to do the things…
Read MorePerfusion Art: “It Takes a Village…”
Perfusion Art: “It Takes a Village…” Photographer: Frank Aprile, CCP, BBA, LP Equipment: I Phone 8+ Editing: Photoshop Narrative: A lot of CO2 in the Hybrid Room… Time & Place: 2016- Somewhere in Iowa About The Artist: CCP Commentary: This looks like a Medieval Painting- Very surreal 🙂 ___________________________________
Read MoreWhen the Symphony Dies… Part 1
________________________________________________ Editor’s Note: A brief story of a series of events that represented some significant challenges for this perfusionist as well as the entire open heart and surgical ICU teams… ________________________________________________ A Level 1 Trauma – 2:00 AM Pager goes off- that’s never good. A call from the OR desk- Something going on in a…
Read MorePerfusion Art: “Thoracic Park…”
Perfusion Art: “Thoracic Park…” Photographer: Frank Aprile, CCP, BBA, LP Equipment: I Phone 8+ Editing: Photoshop Narrative: End of a long day- TAVRs x 3 Time & Place: 2021- North of the Wabash River About The Artist: CCP Commentary: We dodged a bullet today. A very nice save. Couldn’t help but notice how much our equipment resembles mechanical versions of Apex predators…
Read MorePerfusion Art: “The DoorWay”
Perfusion Art: “The DoorWay” Photographer: Frank Aprile, CCP, BBA, LP Equipment: I Phone 8+ Editing: Photoshop Narrative: “What You Lookin At???” (Opening the Chest for CPB-) Time & Place: A While Ago: West Texas About The Artist: CCP Commentary: Two Amazing Clinicians- in a class of their own 🙂 _______________________________________
Read MorePerfusion Art: “Anticipation”
Perfusion Art: “Anticipation” Photographer: Frank Aprile, CCP, BBA, LP Equipment: I Phone 8+ Editing: Photoshop Narrative: When Blood moves forward to meet a crystalloid Ocean… 🙂 Time & Place: 2021: MidWest About The Artist: CCP Commentary: Things we look at every day … _______________________________________
Read MoreLocums CCP- Available 4 You…
I am a contract perfusionist willing and ready to travel. Excellent current and past references, ABCP certified x forever- and have put patients on bypass at 57 facilities during my career. > Chief Perfusionist at 2 startup heart programs >Adult Perfusion >Adult and Pediatric ECMO >STS Data Coordinator > CV Database Developer >Long term Contracts…
Read MorePerfusion Art: “Gradients”
Perfusion Art: “Gradients” Photographer: Frank Aprile, CCP, BBA, LP Equipment: I Phone 8+ Editing: Photoshop Narrative: Say hello to your little friend… Every day we see this so often- I think we forget we are looking at it 🙂 Time & Place: 2021: MidWest About The Artist: CCP Commentary: Things we look at every day … _______________________________________ The Original Shot:
Read MoreSometimes… You Have to Learn How to Walk All Over Again…
_________________ Editor’s Note: Having negotiated the intricacies of assimilating into 57 heart programs prior- the one thing I know for sure: Each heart program is it’s OWN distinctly different animal. Equipment and the OR layouts vary to a certain degree- but after awhile, even those differences start to gel together and became a familiar enough…
Read MorePerfusion Art: “Crimson Tubes”
Perfusion Art: “Crimson Tubes” Photographer: Frank Aprile, CCP, BBA, LP Equipment: I Phone 8+ Editing: Photoshop Narrative: An Aortic Root Reconstruction Time & Place: 2021: MidWest About The Artist: CCP Commentary: There is a raw artistic beauty to the reshaping and re-sculpturing of the human heart
Read MoreA Profile in Courage: Covid (+) Returning to the Heart Team
Covid19: A Transformative Beast… I kind of feel like we are curving up from that BOTTOM of the slippery slope that we have been on for the last 1 ½ years- at least I hope so. We are no longer frightened. We are no longer obsessed with the fear of exposure or how it relates…
Read MorePerfusion Art: “Blood on the Tracks””
Perfusion Art: “Blood on the Tracks” Photographer: Frank Aprile, CCP, BBA, LP Equipment: I Phone 8+ Editing: Photoshop Narrative: “Blood on the Tracks’ Time & Place: 2021: UpNORTH About The Artist: CCP Commentary: A long Emergency Case- Late Night
Read MorePerfusion Art: “Davinci”
Perfusion Art: “ Davinci” Photographer: Frank Aprile, CCP, BBA, LP Equipment: I Phone 8+ Editing: Photoshop Narrative: A MidCab with Robotic IMA Harvest Time & Place: 2021: UpNORTH About The Artist: CCP Commentary: The symmetry on display here is amazing! Impressive watching such an intricate communication process-
Read MorePerfusion Art: “The Ready Room”
Perfusion Art: “The Ready Room” Photographer: Frank Aprile, CCP, BBA, LP Equipment: I Phone 8+ Editing: Photoshop Narrative: Rows of surgical shoes- at the ready Time & Place: 2021: UpNORTH About The Artist: CCP Commentary: It’s a busy place- Reminds me of the Corpsman barracks at the Marine Fleet Marine Force training center- Del Mar 21 Area- Camp Pendleton.
Read MorePerfusion Art: “Twister”
Perfusion Art: “Twister” Photographer: Frank Aprile, CCP, BBA, LP Equipment: I Phone 8+ Editing: Photoshop Narrative: Ready to go on pump- looks a bit like a tornado column Time & Place: 2021: UpNORTH About The Artist: CCP Commentary: Blood in the Prime- the divide between PRBC’s and Crystalloid
Read MoreA Locum’s ScrapBook: Hospital 57
Editor’s Note: Hospital 55 was south of the Savanah River, Hospital 56 was at a convergence of transitional highways leading North South East & West- North of Indy and South of Chi-Town. Hospital 57 is the Mecca of all that is North– and is truly an amazing place to work. First and foremost- it is…
Read MoreLESS than a “10” An ECMO Journey
Editor’s Note: First of all… Happy Easter all 🙂 We all like to talk about adversity and how we overcome it. Rarely do we elaborate on clinical events and the sequence of clinical and/or operational failures that lead to unintended outcomes. The story below is a pretty straight forward account of mishaps and miscues that…
Read MorePerfusion Art: Clouds or Hope?
Perfusion Art: “Clouds or Hope?” Photographer: Unknown- Taken from a Perfusion FB Group and shared by an International brother. Equipment: Your Eyes: How you choose to process random cloud formations. Editing: Anger Hair Filter Narrative: When there are so many bad things in the world… I’d prefer to believe that HOPE always prevails 🙂 Time & Place: 2021: North of the…
Read MoreVAXXED: The New Norm? CDC Guidelines…
Editor’s Note: I got my 2nd dose of the COVID Vaccine the other day. I don’t recommend any particular vaccine over the other, but I will say that I didn’t suffer some of the reported side effects from the 2nd dose. Didn’t feel a thing to be honest. No fatigue or flu-like symptoms. As I…
Read MoreI Woke up Friday and I DIDN’T CARE
That’s my Son 🙂 Editor’s Note: It’s not that I stopped caring, stress just gets you to a point sometime where the typical flair and zest you have for life and the job we do- well sometimes you end up manufacturing the smiles and enthusiasm. Anyone reading the title would have to be discouraged. It…
Read MoreA CO2 PE during SGV Harvesting? WTF?
Editor’s Note: I had an interesting case the other day, here at hospital 56. It was an op cab – and it ended up being more than the original grafts that were advertised. This was a fairly routine patient presentation in terms of degree of difficulty, with a particular surgeon for whatever reason always works…
Read MoreA Locum’s ScrapBook: Unmasking COVID: Virtual Reality has BECOME our Economy.
Editor’s Note: – That is my family. Up there- I want to be able to say that a year from now… – We (or better stated) “I” have worn Masks for YEARS. – Today is a continuation of more than a years struggle in terms of trying to cope with an entirely innocuous yet devastatingly…
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