Cancelling surgery: When the show can’t go on

It’s showtime.  No need to worry.  This is just another routine performance.  I can do this.  All I need to do is get on stage, do my dance, and wait for the curtain to fall.  Then move on to the next stage and do it all again.The curtain opens.My patient is wheeled into the operating room.  With the help of the circulating nurse, we guide her from the hospital gurney over to the operating room table.  With the grace and precision of a ballerina, I start my recital by securing an oxygen mask over her face.  Next, I apply the monitors – a blood pressure cuff to her right arm, a pulse oximeter probe to her left ring finger, an EKG sticker to each shoulder and one more on the left side of her rib cage.  Before turning my back on my patient to draw up narcotics, I start the Levaquin – one of two antibiotics she is to receive before surgical incision.  Less than ten seconds later, her right arm, the one with the IV, has a brilliant red streak tracking along the path of her vein.Continue reading ... Read KevinMD's book: Establishing, Managing and Protecting Your Online Reputation: A Social Media Guide for Physicians and Medical Practices.
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Family Physicians Tags: Physician Pulmonology Source Type: blogs