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What's the Difference Between an Auto Mechanic and a Medical Surgeon?
By stephen Bucaro
Doctors in West Virginia refused to treat patients because of rising medical malpractice
insurance premiums. A majority of doctors in most other states are cutting back on
patient care because of rising malpractice insurance premiums. I have a riddle for those
doctors: What's the difference between an auto mechanic and a medical surgeon? Answer:
An auto mechanic doesn't leave his tools inside the object he worked on!
A study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard School of Public
Health found that surgeons ignore the standard practice of counting the surgical tools
before and after an operation, resulting in tools being left inside the bodies of
1,500 people each year. The actual number of people with surgical tools left inside
their bodies is much higher because hospitals are not required to report mistakes.
Surgeons leave clamps, electrodes, sponges and other surgical tools inside the bodies
of people. In several cases, 11 inch metal retractors where left inside people. Sometimes
the people didn't know that a surgical tool had been left inside their body. Many of the
tools where found in later surgeries.
The surgical tools left inside people often cause obstructions, tissue damage, or cause
infections. The individuals are then required to endure additional surgery to remove
the surgical tools. Claiming "reasons of privacy", researchers withheld information
about people that died from complications caused by surgical tools left inside their bodies.
Maybe medical malpractice insurance premiums wouldn't be so high if the doctors stayed
awake and alert during surgery, or if they at least followed the standard medical practice
of counting the surgical tools before and after an operation. I think the doctors are
correct to refuse to treat patients. If they don't treat any patients, they can't leave
their surgical tools inside peoples bodies!
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