Bad luck my freaking #$%!
Sorry for the expletives but this article has put color in my pale face which is now red with anger. An eighty-three year old man went into the hospital for a gallbladder surgery and ended up having his kidney removed! I will admit that my many years as a nurse wasn’t spent in the operating room. But I did a rotation on a surgical unit where I learned about the safeguards used to prevent this type of thing from happening. And with my recent surgeries in 2004, I observed the new safeguards in place. I do believe, if I remember correctly, that a wrist band was placed on me that had what surgery was to be performed. Also when the doctor enters the surgical suite there is a list of the day’s surgeries with what is to be done. I have a problem with doctors doing so many surgeries on the elderly. Could this patient’s symptoms not been handled with medication?
The investigation stated the reason this happened was because the patient had an unusual anatomy and scares from other operations. This is so much hogwash. A gallbladder is balloon shaped and a kidney is bean shaped. What is the punishment for this kind of malpractice?
Five thousand dollars and fifty hours of public service. Where is the justice in this? And to top it off, the man died three weeks later. Was this old age or complications from this botched surgery?
Wake up America! Our health care system has been compromised by the lack of enough good professionals. If a slap on the wrist is the only thing that will happen to a doctor when he botches a surgery god help us all!
June 11th, 2010 at 8:20 am
This is a good post! Thanks for sharing, I’ll be sure to come back.