Tag: Frank Aprile
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A Collection of ALL TIME Graphics
This Blog & It’s Stunning Art Maps out the intricacies of Open Heart Surgery, and openly engages the peaks and valleys of surgical, ethical, or moral-successes & failures. It highlights moments where lives are saved by the strength of the character of the team- as well as surgical strategies undone by flaws imbued in the…
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Excerpt: Basketball & Heart Surgery
And that’s my life, that’s my chessboard. An old playground, made up from, and used up by… a lot of souls that have their own shots to make, and their own goals to defend. A metaphor for my life in the future I guess, a lot of unmet challenges with unnamed players and unfamiliar playing…
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Excerpt: A Foward from LVAD 1
It is ironic that Frank calls me a hero, where he and all perfusionists are the real heroes… perhaps we all are heroes, the way a Bull Rider straps to a bull and completes his or her 8 second ride.
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Excerpt: Epiphany
My immediate mission was to go from nursing station to nursing station, on all four hospital floors, pick up their trash, and shove it down an old garbage/linen chute, and later go to the sub-basement and burn it all in a furnace room that looked like the gateway to hell. It probably did have “Dante”…
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We Are Growing !
Not too bad.. 67 Countries and counting. We are establishing a very good sized readership. The book shall be released this Summer 2025- Thankyou for your encouraging words and support- Frank
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Excerpt- “Let’s go on Sucker Bypass!”
A shower of betadine hits the patient’s chest like a like a firemen’s bucket parade- dousing a fire, surgical drapes are thrown down, lines are passed off and divided, chest or femoral incisions are made, patient is heparinized and when that ACT hits 350 seconds? We are going on bypass Baybee!
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We Call them HEROES: An American Heart Team in Ukraine…
“Pensiveness best describes the scene, as we swirl our glasses watching the foam tumble down the side of the glass and picking at a cold piece of pizza. We all know what is coming but none of us know what to expect.”
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A Day in the Life… [And Then Comes Sunday]
![A Day in the Life… [And Then Comes Sunday]](https://tipsofspears.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cce64-img_9305b-1.jpg?w=1024)
24 Hours… of ECMO Jesse struggles to do a stretch during a therapy session with occupational therapist Megan Taylor on Tuesday, June 12, 2011. (Miranda Grubbs/ Lubbock Avalanche-Journal) Click Image Above to View Video Interview… The End and a new beginning This is the culmination of Jessie’s story. His life is a new chapter now,…
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A Day In The Life… [5]
![A Day In The Life… [5]](https://tipsofspears.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/79f7b-img_57521.jpg?w=688)
My bud Ashley just looks at me like I’m some sort of freak, as I have a full bag of Bugles opened next to my coffee, and an undisclosed meal in a McDonald’s bag.
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A Day In The Life… [4]
![A Day In The Life… [4]](https://tipsofspears.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/f8c7f-xray1.jpg?w=603)
Every once in awhile comes a seminal moment. That epiphany we are all gifted to encounter once in a while during our clinical lives, that moment of clarity when the clouds part a bit, and you can see blue sky and a distant shore. That was the drama of this morning’s CXR.
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A Day In The Life… [3]
![A Day In The Life… [3]](https://tipsofspears.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/79fa5-img_801311.jpg?w=768)
Low flows = the potential for stasis of blood flowing through the circuit, which in turn can lead to greater susceptibility for clot formation in the oxygenator or extracorporeal circuit.
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A Day In The Life… [2]
![A Day In The Life… [2]](https://tipsofspears.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/e2591-img_9305b.jpg?w=1024)
We found ourselves in the midst of a campaign to get “negative” (in other words- take off more fluid in total, than the 4 liters the patient had received during the initial stages of the ECMO run). And as of tonight, we were starting to win that particular little battle.
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A Day In The Life… [1]
![A Day In The Life… [1]](https://tipsofspears.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/bfb18-jesse.jpg?w=600)
24 hours to the finish line, and all you can do is just hope you don’t trip and fall. That pretty much sums up this ECMO run. Just trust your feet, and don’t lose sight of the goal…
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To Alma Public Schools: Veteran’s Day, 2023
Presented By: Frank Aprile, HM2, USN Length of Service: 4.7 years / Honorable Discharge Stationed: Navy Medical Regional Center, San Diego CA Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, Ocean Side California U.S. Naval Hospital Emergency Room, Subic Bay, Republic of the Phillipines Operating Room Technical School, Navy Regional Medical Center: Bethesda, MD Naval Hospital, Charleston, SC Dedication: SOMETIMES…
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Excerpt: TipsOfSpears: Epiphany
Editor’s Note: A casual preview of the upcoming book: The Tips Of Spears Epiphany As a junior in High School, I needed to find a way to make money, as it wasn’t going to be coming from an allowance or stipend from my mom or dad. Being in a university town, that prospect wasn’t going…
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Perfusion Art: A COMET’s Tale
Perfusion Art: “A COMET’s Tale” Photographer: Frank Aprile, CCP, BBA, LP Equipment: IPhone 13+ Editing: Photoshop, Correll Paintshop Narrative: Hostile Environment V Patient Abandonment Time & Place: 2023- Somewhere West of the Nova Scotia Deluge About The Artist: CCP Commentary: Looks Bleak TBH 🙂 ___________________________________
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A Locum’s ScrapBOOK: Changing Faces
First a shout out- to a couple of very special people that helped me when it was clear I was kinda down and out for the count. Bryan and Kristy you know who you are 🙂 Thank YOU! I typically stray away from sharing any aspect of what motivates me- or causes me to totally…
The Tips of Spears... 