Rationale
Cardiac Case Study
In the spring of 2008, my nephew was diagnosed, prenatally, with a congenital heart defect
called hypoplastic left heart syndrome. His case motivated me to incorporate his heart condition
into my Human Anatomy and Physiology (HAP) curriculum as a case study.
PBL Case Study-- Diagnosis & Communication
In years following his birth and 3 open-heart surgeries, I incorporated his situation into my
honors HAP courses as a diagnostic case. Given the ultrasound images and artist’s rendition of
the same along with the doctors’ interpretive notes, the students were to diagnose the patient with
the correct CHD and research the treatment plan and prognosis for it. [See Cardiac Case Study
01: ] Following this research, the student teams play the role of the cardiologists
communicating with the patient’s primary physician. They draft a letter explaining his heart
condition and the surgical treatment plan along with the timeline for these surgeries. [See
Cardiac Case Study materials: ] Finally, they supply medical interventions that the patient will
require over the course of his life.
Modeling
This year, I used my nephew’s heart condition in a different way in my general HAP classes.
After we studied the structure of the heart along with the blood flow through the heart, I asked
my students to develop a model for a “circulatory fix” for hypoplastic left heart syndrome. I
provided models for normal circulation [See gen circ schematics: ] and shared the movie
Something the Lord Made as background for what solutions they might need to consider to
insure the patient gets sufficient oxygen distribution to the brain and body. We shared the
models on whiteboards by doing a gallery walk where students ask questions and provide
comments on the proposed models using sticky notes, after which groups may answer questions
and defend their models. [See photos
] The students were engaged and insightful! I was
extremely proud of the work they did; in fact, many of their solutions were reasonably close to
the actual procedures used on my nephew!
0
