Manhattan High alumnus Adam Shaner used images and videos of surgeries to describe how gruelling a job in the surgical field can be. A normal day for Shaner, an orthopedic surgeon, starts at five in the morning and typically does not end until ten at night. Despite all of this, Shaner loves his job, he told the Medical Explorers members Thursday when they gathered in one of the Via Christi hospital meeting rooms for his presentation.

“When you see the X-ray of the bone pushed back in place, that feeling is really rewarding,” Shaner said.

The main job of an orthopedic surgeon is to fix developmental issues, but they also fix many common injuries like torn ligaments. They can even remove tumors from vertebrae as he showed in a video. In the video, Shaner physically removed a tumor infested vertebrae from someone’s spine and replaced with a solid object that would serve as an adequate support. While the images were understandably graphic, some students felt this added to the presentation.

“It made more sense to see actual bones than to see fake bones and diagrams in class,” senior Rebekah Hennesy said.

In one section of his presentation, Shaner put up pictures of various surgeries he has done and asked students what the possible solutions for the injury could be. He used a lot of audience participation in his presentation due to the large amount of anatomy students present for the extra credit opportunity. Shaner closed the presentation by stating the main goal of an orthopedic surgeon: restore the anatomy, length, alignment and rotation. He also let those who are considering surgery as a career that orthopedic surgeons deal with simple injuries, but also incredibly complex injuries.

Overall, the Medical Explorers had a great time.

“I thought it was really neat. I was a little grossed out though,” vice president and junior Molly Smith said.