Paging future doctors

Children get hands-on experience

Fresh from the slaughterhouse, the pig lungs and heart were placed on the low table. Little gloved hands reached in and poked the glistening organs.

"It feels really spongy," Cailley Factor, 6, said of a lung.

Ashley Garner
The Post and Courier

John Chakeris, 6 (from left); Clara Richards, 5; Grace Richards, 4; Cailley Factor, 6; check out a pig heart during a pilot program of RX Medical Discovery at Roper Hospital on Thursday.

"Why do you think it feels spongy?" asked Joanne Davidson, a cardiothoracic surgical nurse with Roper St. Francis Healthcare.

Rx Medical Discovery is a pilot program at Roper Hospital for children ages 5 to 8 to get hands-on clinical science experience.

Program Coordinator and hospital volunteer Amy Condon planned the mini-medical school lessons: six one-hour tutorials led by Roper physicians and hospital professionals.

"We tried to cover the basic organ systems and find a physician to match that," said Condon, a medical technologist by trade. "We try to have fresh organs for the children to look at."

The pilot was made possible by a donation to the Roper St. Francis Foundation by Mallory and Elizabeth Factor, Cailley's parents.

"Things like this have a major impact on young minds," Mallory Factor said. "You do not dumb it down for kids."

After the test program, the goal is to reach out to schoolchildren throughout the region. "I'd love to see this become a program we can offer to lots of children. They're like little sponges," Condon said.

"Children this age, while they may seem too young to absorb sophisticated concepts, take in more than you think," said Dr. Jeb Hallett, medical director of Roper St. Francis Heart and Vascular Services.

Hallett led a lesson titled "Where's my heart?" Children left with little plastic heart models so they could continue learning at home.

The children's program is part of a larger effort, Medical Discovery Program for the Charleston Community. Each year, an influential medical scientist will talk to the community in an open forum, Hallett said.

Ultimately, Hallett hopes the visiting scientists will spark interest and conversation among area business leaders and medical manufacturers.

Reach Jill Coley at 937-5719 or jcoley@postandcourier.com.

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