Space lessons come to BCMC doctors

Former astronaut Dr. Rhea Seddon (left) speaks with Bedford County Medical Center Chief of Staff Dr. Bill Russell after her presentation to county medical staffers including, in the background, Dr. Ted Blanton. (T-G Photo by Clint Confehr) [Click to enlarge]

Doctors and nurses should follow a checklist before starting surgery just like pilots go through a preflight inspection and checklist, former astronaut Rhea Seddon told Bedford County Medical Center staff during their Grand Rounds program last week.

"It works," agreed Dr. A.T. "Tom" Richards, the county medical examiner. "That's why you can fly in an airplane with much less risk than driving to the hospital. It's been done for decades, but not as well-organized as what Dr. Seddon explained to our medical staff."

Such a practical application of a system used in aviation to the practice of medicine is Seddon's favorite lesson brought to Earth from her travels in space, she said.

"This is not rocket science," Seddon said during a presentation started with "home movies" from one of her trips to space. Seddon traveled aboard space shuttles Discovery and Columbia in 1991, 1993 and 1995.

Blastoff is "kind of a kick in the seat of the pants," Seddon said. "You're going 100 mph by the time you clear the tower."

She visited Shelbyville at the request from Dr. Bill Russell, chief of staff at BCMC, who was chief resident at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine when she was an intern in 1970-73.

"I've always appreciated his kindness and patience for a junior resident," Seddon said of Russell.

Seddon lives in Murfreesboro, works at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and is to be inducted into the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame on Nov. 12 at the Tennessee Museum of Aviation in Sevierville.

Weightlessness was among the topics she reviewed Thursday.

Body fluids go to the center of living creatures taken into space, Seddon said. While blood vessels at the skin seem to "pop out," leading doctors to believe space increases blood pressure, that's not so.

"Lo and behold, it's low."

There's also a more even distribution of air in the blood and fitness is lost faster without gravity, Seddon said.

Weightlessness also reduces stress on bones, she said. Dr. Francisca Lytle, an orthopedic surgeon, recognized that as bad -- because bones grow or replenish themselves as they bear weight.

And so, Seddon explained, osteoporosis is "one of the show stoppers" when people plan to go to Mars. There's a loss of bone calcium and red cells in space.

"You'd hate to get to Mars, step off your ship and break your hip," Seddon said. "Will it heal?"

Ear, nose and throat specialist Dr. Ted Blanton said he learned the inner ear is one of the few organs that does not recover quickly from weightlessness.

"No stimulation caused more of an effect ... than overstimulation associated with sea sickness," Blanton said.

BCMC's Grand Rounds program offers one hour of continuing education credit for each of the three programs offered to doctors each month. Blanton said he hopes it's continued after the hospital is sold by the county.