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Old 08-27-2008, 05:56   #2
Red Flag 1
Area Commander
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 2,952
OR X-rays

Intresting case with the intra-operative cholangiogram. Not uncommon for the one at the head of the table to place and remove x-ray plate. Two thoughts tech and practice.

Tech: Ventilators on anesthesia machines have gone from noisy to silent then drifting back to " controlled audibility". There was a time when everyone in the room could hear the vent. That went away over the years. When I retired a few years ago, Ohmeda had designed user controlled audio sounds to work along with the vents. Disconnect and apnea alarms were also present.

Practice: Knowing that I was primarily responsable for patient ventilation, that task was high on my to do list. If my patient was vent dependant, and I turned off the vent, my hand NEVER left the on/off switch until it was turned back on....NEVER! If x-ray thought I was a jerk for not helping with the x-ray tray when they wanted, that was thier problem! I wouldt take the seconds required for the patient, then help the x-ray tech. No one ever complained.

A third thought is that airing cases such as this in open forum is a great learning tool for health care pros. Professional discussion of the one in a million case helps keep folks focused, as they do in professional journals. Open public forum can also just flat scare the be-Jesus out of folks who are going to surgery tomorrow, next week or never.

It is my most humble opinion, that some things are best discussed by PM. Second, I do not know who you are, for all I know, you may be a malpractice attorney fishing for info to hang a pretty good Doc.

My humble $.02.

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