Be still my beating heart: Medical genius revives the dead in Anatomy class
Junior Priscilla Peterson, rejoices when she finally made the heart come back to life. “The feeling of the beating heart in my hand was a little gross but really amazing at the same time. I am still in awe of what I could do,” Peterson said.
April 1, 2018
Hearts are complicated organs that pump blood throughout the body, keeping a person living and breathing. Sophomore Priscilla Peterson mastered this organ when she miraculously brought it back to life during a dissection in Mrs. Hopp’s Honors Human Anatomy and Physiology class. Students described the beating heart that only a few moments before had been lifeless as a disturbing and incredibly interesting educational experience.
“It was insane. She added some things onto the dead heart and within a few minutes it was moving, beating. I was honestly scared yet intrigued at the same time,” lab partner junior Sarah Tedrick said.
A complex procedure went into making the heart restart. She followed the heart in a box medical technique, that was researched and developed only a few years before, and with an abundance more of supplies. She made the heart feel as if it was still in a body by pumping the organ with warm, oxygenated, and nutrient-enriched water from her water bottle, connecting the two with a small tube, and using her phone and a broken charger to send a shockwave through the heart, restarting it.
“Honestly, I was experimenting with some cheap materials I found at Michaels because I saw this medical journal on the developing technologies of preserving organs. I wanted to see what would happen, if it would work, if I could restart a heart without a body,” Peterson said.
Peterson lives in a world surrounded by medicine, with both of her parents working in the medical field, and her aspirations to become a cardiovascular surgeon. She shows great potential, already making groundbreaking discoveries in a high school class, and currently pursues a paid internship at Kennestone Hospital.
“I knew Priscilla was an exceptional student in my class, already knowing everything I had to teach and teaching me more, but I was still so blown away by her abilities during this dissection, and I was so grateful to be able to see such a medical breakthrough in my classroom,” Honors Human Anatomy and Physiology teacher Julie Hopp said.
April Fool’s, you fools!
XOXO,
The Chant
