‘Saving Lives with Gus’ connects kids to health care

Lourdes junior Patrick Dearani, top left, learns how to perform a focused assessment with sonography for trauma examination on junior Josh Bestgen, bottom left, as fourth-year medical student Nicolas Contreras leads them during the "Saving Lives with Gus" high school seminar Monday, March 14, 2016, at Mayo Clinic's Siebens Building in downtown Rochester. The seminar featured multiple hands-on stations for area students that give tools to help save a life and learn about healthcare and surgery.

By Hannah Yang, <a href="mailto:hyang@postbulletin.com">hyang@postbulletin.com</a>

March 15, 2016 at 5:00 PM

As a jump start to learning more about the world of medicine, the Mayo Clinic hosted a seminar for area high school students to help get them interested in saving lives.

• About 125 high school students from Rochester, La Crescent and Forest City, Iowa, attended the seminar.

• David Farley, a general surgeon, played host.

• Students were shown the video series "Saving Lives with Gus," created by a team of surgical residents and simulation medicine fellows at the clinic.

• The team also created the seminar for the students to gain early exposure to the medical field.

• Students got to perform CPR on mannequins, use a defibrillator, perform an ultrasound and test their knot-tying skills on simulated blood vessels.

• "We hope it is a great opportunity for high school students to get hands-on experience with a variety of medical inventions," Farley said. "In an ideal scenario, this effort helps save a life in the future, and better informs and stimulates young learners to consider medicine as a potential career."