Some people are blessed with the knowledge that they are destined to follow a certain path in life. Luverne native Teri (Busse) Hady knew at a very young age what path she would choose. She was called to help people by becoming a nurse.
"I always wanted to be a surgical nurse. I had to take little tests to see what I wanted to do in the seventh grade. I knew right away I wanted to work in the operating room," said Teri.
She currently works as a cardiac surgical nurse for Dr. Dearani, M.D., a cardiac and transplant surgeon at Mayo Clinic, Rochester. In addition to her duties for Dr. Dearani, Teri assists in heart, lung, liver and kidney transplants.
Mayo Clinic, a renowned medical center, offers cutting edge medical treatments, including organ transplants.
Methodist and St. Mary's hospitals are both located in Rochester. Each hospital specializes in different areas, but both are under the canopy of the Mayo Clinic.
When Teri is on call for transplants she must be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For heart transplants she is on call one week out of five, for liver three weeks out of six. If her on call time overlaps she must find someone to cover for her.
Teri said she has seen many advances in transplant surgery. For example, in the past, a liver transplant patient would have been put on a bypass machine. Now the surgeons are more familiar with the operation so the surgery is performed without the by-pass. Bypass is used only in extremely complicated surgeries.
Living related donor liver transplants are also performed. Mayo Clinic is one of the few places in the United States approved for this procedure.
Teri has worked on both ends of the transplant procedure. She was a member of a retrieval team before she switched to the transplant team. Fear of flying was the reason for her switch.
Previously, she would have traveled anywhere in the transplant region of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota or Wisconsin with little notice.
A transplant team includes two surgical nurses, one surgical tech, a resident and surgeon.
Organs have maximum time limits between retrieval and transplant completion. Completion means in the patient and functioning normally.
Hearts must be transplanted within four hours, livers within 12 hours, lungs within eight hours and kidneys within 24 hours.
Teri has assisted on numerous surgeries, but recently she was on the team for Beaver Creek resident Ron RaukÕs liver transplant.
Teri said she talked with the family before the surgery to let them know she would be assisting. "The family of the patient is under so much stress with a million and one things happening. I just wanted to say it would be all right," Teri said.
"I know that I am helping someone live a longer life. I know that they are going to have a better life. Some are so sick before surgery they can hardly get out of bed. Liver surgeries are especially rewarding because the patient recovers so quickly. They can go back to living the life they used to live."
Teri encourages everyone to talk to their family members if they are interested in organ donation and have their wishes put on their driver's license.
"So many patients die daily that are waiting for an organ. They are the gift of life. It's the greatest gift you can give another person," she said.
Teri and her husband, Steve, live in Rochester. She is the daughter of Ken and Janice Busse, Luverne.