Marco and Polo Break a Leg

Marco and Polo here,

   The end of this last term came quickly, Marco and Polo are now proud 'owners' of our very own concentrations in bioengineering (it's like we're almost real engineers). For this concentration we had to take Mech 350 (Introduction to Bioapplications).  Lets face it, we decided on this concentration just so we could take this class.  So this is our account of playing surgeon engineer.
  To start this had to be the funniest class we have ever had the pleasure of taking, Mr. Dr. Bones, the professor for the class, couldn't go one period without making us laugh so hard we were on the brink of tears.  Some of our favorite moments and quotes:

• “There’s a lot of women in this class, that’ll greatly increase the maturity level”
• “Oh he’s a cave person.  Probably gets chased by dinosaurs in his spare time”
• Mr. Dr. Bones breaking out into a rap/metal/ACDC dance session in the middle of class...
• “Sometimes people rip the muscle off their bone...  Don’t do that”
• “Anyone a vegetarian? Good, you’re all T-rexes”
• Showing off his mad-magician skills to a room full of engineering students...  These usually had nothing to do with the class and stumped a worrying number of classmates...
• “Have you ever watched Jeopardy with a non-engineer? You realize you’re an idiot”
• “I call it my nerd-klase, it’s like a necklace but for nerds”
• “All men, even the Pope and the president, are perverts”
•  Mr. Dr. Bones agreeing to rap again so that we can get it on video for your viewing pleasure...

   Other than being hilarious Mr. Dr. Bones was an amazing prof to have, he took the idea that engineers learn by doing to heart and as a result we spent many hours this term scrubbed up and preforming simulated surgeries. These activities included a gall bladder removal, cholecystectomy, from a Tall Paul, a PVC pipe angioplasty using a toilet snake, and building and repairing a leg.

   Marco, Polo and the Kid were in a group for the leg project, we started by building a leg from the bone out, using elastic, yarn, foam, tights, and a LOT of screws and zip-ties.  We lovingly called our leg Simon.

Polo and the Kid with Simon [everything but the skin]

Marco With Simon [that's his hip joint capsule]

   Unfortunately the next step consisted of breaking Simon's femur and trading him with another groups leg.  We named our new leg John Doe and spent the next few classes doing an ExFix, inserting a nail, and finally plating the break.

Marco  drilling into John's femur to insert a nail while Polo holds the muscles and skin out of the way

 After we had the femur plated we preformed a hip and knee replacement using play-dough as our bone cement.

   Overall this class was incredible and we wish that there was a Bioapps II we could take this next term.

As always Stay Nerdy and remember, the moral of this story is DON'T GET INJURED,
Marco and Polo