Extras · 1 of 4

A typical day

Start at 7am, check the day's schedule and set up the room. In the catheterization lab that means prepping the table, the monitoring equipment and the sterile field, then gowning up in lead. Cases run through the morning: you watch the pressures and rhythms on screen, hand the doctor what is needed, and talk the patient through what is happening. In the echocardiography lab it is quieter, five or six scans a day, each one 30 to 45 minutes of careful imaging. Then reports, cleaning and restocking.