system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How do shifts work on really long medical operations?

First time asking here, hope I'm within the rules.

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I saw some picture of a doctor and nurses sitting on the floor in exhaustion after a 36 hour life-saving surgery (or so the post claimed). 

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I then found myself wondering - how do the shifts work in such a procedure? Surely it wasn't the same staff for 36 hours, right? Is there an overlap where a second team takes over and is fully briefed over an hour or more, or what?
If the scope of the operation is uncertain, how are the shifts designed?

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In my mind this is a scientific question about procedures in the field of medical science. I hope you agree and that someone can offer some valuable insight.
gpt
Everyone except for the surgeon gets rotated out.

Usually big long surgeries have 2 surgeons. One is the primary surgeon and the other is assisting. The assisting one may be another attending surgeon or a resident surgeon. Even big surgeries have a point where the patient is stable enough to temporarily pause so one of the surgeons can be relieved for a minute to get some food, use the restroom. So the patient is never without a surgeon, but surgeons don’t operate through a 36 hour case without a break.