By Alexandra Cheney
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — Fifth graders at a Washington Heights school “operated” on a body they made from paper mâché and Twizzlers on Friday after a week-long learning session with a Bellevue Medical Center doctor.
Dr. Aaron Hultgren rounded out the the week of “Mini Medical School,” sponsored by the NYU School of Medicine, by assigning the students at P.S. 4 Duke Ellington School roles as specialized heart, lung and brain doctors in a mock operation.
The children, dressed head-to-toe in scrubs — including hair caps, gloves and shoe shields — went though each vital part of the body. The "heart doctors" took out the heart, made of gelatin, and replaced it with a new one. The "lung doctors" stuck a tube into the patient after they were told he had trouble breathing.
“I think this is a phenomenal experience,” said Delois White-Jones, Principal of P.S. 4. “This was a great opportunity for the children, while young, to have a mock operation room, and to also make a decision as to whether or not they would like to become medical doctors in the future.”
While one group was operating on the patient, the others sat on the stage observing the process, watching as Hultgren helped the students examine the X-rays to determine a diagnosis and best course of action.
“They’re able to get their hands involved,” said Hultgren. “They’re able to built a skeleton. So it’s not just something they see in a book, they actually make their own. So they learn how to actually make this thing. Are there two bones or one bone that make this part?
"It’s also something they own, they’re the surgeons.”
