When the power went out in an Austin, Texas, clinic, urologist Christopher Yang, MD, used a Rivian … [+]
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Usually, you may not want to hear a urologist say, “let’s use my truck” before performing a vasectomy on you. But when the power went out in a clinic in Austin, Texas, on September 1, a urologist’s Rivian pick-up truck made a vas deferens, so to speak. Christopher Yang, MD, a urologist at North Austin Urology, used the power from this electric vehicle (EV) to “pick up” the slack, according to his tweet below:
If you happen to have testicles, it’s a good idea to know what a vasectomy is, just in case, you are expecting to undergo a totally different procedure and your doctor asks, “ready for your vasectomy?” A vasectomy is a surgical procedure that normally takes about a half-hour or so to perform and can prevent you from getting anyone pregnant. Normally, your testes, which are located in each of your scrota, produce sperm, which are then stored in your epididymis located at the top of each of your testicles. When you get sexually aroused, muscle contractions squeeze the sperm into the vas deferens, otherwise known as the ductus deferens or sperm duct, which is a long muscular tube leading all the way to your urethra. You likely have two of these long tubes, or two vasa deferentia. When sperm mixed with seminal fluid produced by your seminal vesicles, located below your bladder and next to your vas deferens, travel through your urethra, you ejaculate.
Here’s a snip of what a vasectomy can do. During the procedure, the doctor will cut or in some other way interrupt your vasa deferentia, thereby preventing sperm from getting to your urethra. After a vasectomy, you can still orgasm and ejaculate the non-sperm contents of your semen. This semen won’t have sperm because the sperm can’t get past the vasectomy-induced interruptions in your vasa deferentia, sort of like how cars can’t get past a bridge after Godzilla has knocked it down.
Now, vasectomies have become fairly routine procedures. However, the one Yang performed was a cut above others. In his tweet, Yang called it, “likely the world’s first @Rivian powered vasectomy.” That may be true because Rivian’s slogan is, ‘Keep the World Adventurous Forever rather than “May be used to power vasectomies.” Yang didn’t appear to be aiming for such a first initially. After the power in his clinic had gone out, Yang did not insist that they keep on trucking with the procedure. Instead, based on Yang’s tweet, he offered the option of cutting short the procedure and rescheduling for another day. However, the “patient didn’t want to reschedule cause he already had time off,” and thus was amenable to Yang using his EV to power all the necessary equipment for the vasectomy. Ultimately, it looks like the procedure went EV-peasy, with Yang’s tweet stating that “Electrocautery was normal, procedure went great!”
While not all of the equipment used to perform the vasectomy required electricity, typically such procedures do involve at least some electric-powered equipment. Yang’s tweet seemed to reference an electrical device used to cauterize tissue. Most clinics should have some type of fan or air conditioning device for the late Summer since it’s a not a great idea to have the patient and the surgeon sweating bullets during the procedure. And usually lights are pretty important. People may have watched the movie Star Trek Into Darkness, but people probably don’t want to see “Vasectomy Into Darkness.”
Presumably, the battery and its stored electric charge were the only parts of the Rivian pick-up truck used for the vasectomy. The tweet would have been more odd had it said something like world’s first vasectomy while driving a Rivian. This case did showcase how EVs are essentially batteries on wheels and unlike gas-powered vehicles could serve a wide range of battery-ish functions. Basically anytime other electric sources are scarce such as during a blackout, if you’ve got an EV, you may be able to sing, “I’ve got the power.”
Yang’s tweet got its share of responses on the Twittersphere. This included people saying that it will be shocking if the vasectomy doesn’t take and the word “nuts” being tossed around, not surprisingly. Some tweets called this story very Texas such as the following:
Oleg Stens, MD, a rheumatologist at UCLA Harbor Medical Center, recommended that Yang publish this story as a case report but didn’t “auto”-matically assume that a medical journal would be the best place:
Yang’s story also got the attention of some folks who wanted to interview him such as Matt Hardigree, a publisher at The Autopian and @MatthewRideout, who may or may not be writing for a vasectomy website:
Yeah, that last tweet may have been a bit tongue in cheek, which by the way shouldn’t be body parts involved in a vasectomy.
The use of the EV to power medical equipment does open up a range of possibilities when it comes to “medical care in the field,” meaning outside standard health care surroundings. If EVs were to become more ubiquitous, doctors and other health professionals may be able to do more for patients in a greater variety of locations. Heck, procedures that currently can’t be done outside a clinic or hospital could someday be EV as 1,2,3.
