Medical Society Talk at Eton College

Year 12 student Charlotte who is interested in a career in medicine, attended a Medical Society talk at Eton College and kindly shares her experience with us...

"Medicine and medicine adjacent fields may not be for everyone, but for anyone thinking about perusing a degree or career in the sciences would definitely benefit from attending the Medical Society talks at Eton College. Not only do they provide insight into different medical specialities, they can also help you make links between the topics you learn in science and provide a deeper perspective into how everything works in the human body.

On Wednesday I attended a talk delivered by Pankaj Chandak, a paediatric surgeon who specialises in kidney transplant surgery. Throughout the talk, it became clear that there are many ways to improve the quality of transplantation surgery, and fix the issues that are beyond the operating table.

What really interested me was the range of current and up and coming methods to solve a major problem in organ transplantation: the lack of good quality organs and the lack of organs available. Even though many people die each year, certain factors such as autoimmune disease, diabetes, and drug damage reduce the pool of viable organs. One method that has been explored to combat this is organ regeneration and repair. In terms of the kidney, machine perfusion is used to first resuscitate the organ, and then the kidney will have its function assessed, using factors like 'does it make urine?'. Repairing blood vessels and arteries is also a major factor of organ repair, as during the retrieval surgery of an organ, there may be difficulties that cause damages. 

Another method that surprised me was xeno-transplantation. This involves transplanting organs across species, with much current research being into pig organs. However, the first time xeno-transplantation was used by John Hunter in the 1700's, where he implanted a human tooth into the head of a cockerel. More modernly however, there's only been one recipient of a pig kidney, Richard Slayman who had the surgery performed in March 2024 and passed away in May 2024.  Although xeno-transplantation is possible, there are many ethical issues surrounding the matter, and many risks still being investigated about using non-human organs in transplantation such as disease and rejection. It poses the question, unless you were desperate, would you accept an organ that doesn't come from human origin? 

Finally, Chandak mentioned his work in 3D printing within paediatric surgery. A problem of this surgery is assessing whether an organ (normally adult) can be accommodated in paediatric transplant cases, where patients are usually under 20kgs. 3D printing organs and surrounding structures allows a deeper insight into 3D depth that may not be achieved through MRIS and CT scans.

I found this talk to be really inspiring, and it furthered my understanding in the field of surgery, the speciality I hope to pursue. We were reminded that we should be prepared to fail, but that it helps us build new successes. Many thanks to Miss Lawson and Eton college for arranging an amazing talk."

Our thanks to Charlotte for sharing this with us, and highlighting these types of opportunities for aspiring medics.