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Surgeon shares the heart of his profession with pre-med students

Dr. Siddarth Sarangi presents images of his heart surgery experience. Photo via Micah Weidner

A local cardiac surgeon spoke to the BU Med Club about the art of heart transplants, his most interesting surgeries and what life in his profession is like earlier this week.

Dr. Siddarth Sarangi, one of the top cardiac doctors at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, spoke of cases ranging from a prisoner who stuck a wire into his chest to a stab wound victim, both of whom survived despite severe heart damage. 

The presentation included a slideshow of pictures taken of patients mid-surgery.

Sarangi revealed that one of his most standout experiences in cardiac surgery is one he performs regularly: the heart transplant.

Once a heart is removed from a donor, it is only functional for four hours and must be kept cold before it becomes unusable. As a result, transplants involve Sarangi flying out of town, removing a heart from a usually brain-dead donor, flying the heart back across the country and performing the transplant within the timeframe.

“The last transplant we did, we were able to achieve that in three hours and two minutes,” Sarangi said. “That’s as fast as we can.”

BU Med Club Vice President Nick Sfeir found this to be the most interesting story.

“That’s the first time I’ve heard [about] the procedure,” Sfeir said. “He had to go out of town and [come] back. The extraneous details were super interesting to me.”

As a junior pre-med student, he also found the presentation inspiring.

“I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to do medicine for sure, but now after hearing him, it set me up on the path of ‘I remember now, this is why I want to do medicine,’” Sfeir said.

Sarangi said he believes passion is a necessary quality for anyone looking for longevity in the medical industry. According to him, cardiac surgeons are the types of people who work in the profession their entire lives.

“That’s what they tell all the time. ‘They stopped operating. How? They died,’” Sarangi said.

In between the life-saving surgeries Sarangi performs daily, he is a regular person who still has to balance work and a personal life.

Some of his hobbies when he isn’t working include singing, meditating, reading, learning trivia and listening to music. Despite finding things he loves in between the stress of surgeries, one of Sarangi’s biggest struggles has been finding time for his family, especially when he was training to become a doctor.

“You definitely miss out on family. Now I think I have a little bit more time, but do the children have time now? Probably not, because they’ve moved on,” Sarangi said.

Nevertheless, he does not seem to regret the path he has chosen.

“You give me another lifetime. You give me 10 more lifetimes. I’ll still do what I do now,” Sarangi said.

BU Med Club President Ali Patel, who is interested in cardiac surgery, says he was pleased with the outcome of the event. 

“He had a good mix of humanity and still being professional,” Patel said.

The BU Med Club meets at 8 p.m. on Mondays in room 149 in Olin Hall.

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