On an early Tuesday morning on March 31, students from Jennifer Terhaar’s Human Anatomy and Physiology class observed a pituitary adenoma surgery live from a presentation room in the basement of the library.

In addition to studying neuroscience from textbooks, slide shows and dissections, students were able to get a first hand view of the inside of a live human brain. While students were not able to make the trip to the gallery of the procedure’s operating room, Emily Jee, Director of Academic Technology at Peddie, made the viewing feasible through an live-webcam system.

The procedure took place in Overlook Hospital of Summit, N.J. and was performed by a full staff including surgeons Dr. Richard Hodosh and Dr. William Drake, and anesthesiologist Dr. Paul Presti.

Students were not only granted the opportunity to observe a live surgery of an actual patient, but were also able to interact with the staff throughout the entire procedure.

The web-cam system allowed students to see the staff’s work and to speak to them during the procedure. Hodosh, a surgeon with more than 20 years of experience, answered each question while executing his surgical skills.

Students reacted positively to this event.

“The experience was completely unique. Overlook Hospital is actually really close to where I live and it has a phenomenal neurosurgery program,” Lauren Wieder ’15 said. “I have been there before because of a procedure my mom underwent, but I’ve never seen it like this. We got to see the surgeon’s every move, hear their discussions, and even ask them questions on our minds.”