This post was written by Mina Park after her Princeternship. 

For my Princeternship, I was given an amazing opportunity to shadow Dr. Parham Ganchi ’87 at Ganchi Plastic Surgery in Wayne, NJ for two days. Before, I had thought that plastic surgery mainly correlated with doing cosmetic work on the face, but through this Princeternship I learned that plastic surgery was a much broader field and I am so glad I was fortunate enough to get some real experience, even if it was only for a short time period.

My two-day Princeternship was divided into either watching Dr. Ganchi perform surgeries or sitting in on check-ups/consultations. Patients came back for check ups on operations such as labiaplasty, breast augmentation, and rhinoplasty. Being able to see the different stages that patients were in for the healing process was also interesting to be exposed to. I was really amazed by how on top of everything Dr. Ganchi was and the care and attention he gave each patient. I got to look at his schedule for the day and it was super packed! Even though he was so busy, Dr. Ganchi never lost his smile and always brought out a happy atmosphere not only for the patients but also for the office workers as well.

The next day I was excited because I was able to look at surgeries up close. I got to observe Dr. Ganchi perform a breast implant removal, labiaplasty, and blepharoplasty. It was really interesting to see three procedures all in one day. For each one, Dr. Ganchi had very distinct procedures depending on what type of surgery he had to perform. I also got to speak to the anesthesiologist and ask him questions about what drugs he had to use for each patient to sedate him/her. At first, I thought that these surgeries would not take a long time because they sounded so simple. However, I soon realized that I was wrong because Dr. Ganchi was so meticulous with his utensils and artistically cut through the skin in such a way that the patient would not see a major scar after recovery. I am so fortunate to have been given this incredible opportunity and I am so glad I could see these operations up close.

This Princeternship gave me such a wonderful opportunity, where I got observe surgeries related to cosmetics. This experience has helped me narrow down what type of doctor I might want to become in the future, and I thank Dr. Ganchi and his amazing staff for their warm hospitality!