What does a 3 year old know?
If you don’t like our toddler’s opinion, just wait; she’ll change her mind in a few seconds. The ever-changing mind of a 3-year-old is what makes the fact that I decided to be a doctor at that age all the more amazing. But, that’s how old I was when my parents took me on a mission trip to Haiti, and I decided I wanted to …
The struggle of mommy-guilt in physician-mothers is real
In September 2010, a seasoned pediatric intensive care unit nurse administered an accidental overdose to a critically ill baby, giving ten times the amount of calcium that was prescribed. Five days later, this baby, with an already tenuous heart condition, died. The nurse recognized her mistake immediately, informed her superior, and also told the family and physicians. She was, however, escorted out of the hospital, put on administrative leave, and …
Doctors and nurses need better support when they make errors
“I admire anyone who has the guts to write anything at all.”
– E. B. White
“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”
– Ernest Hemingway
“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.”
– Mark Twain
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
– Maya Angelou
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at …
A surgeon blogs for one year. Here’s what she learned.
“For some must watch, while some must sleep.”
– William Shakespeare, Hamlet
I admit, I was taken aback at the headline that ran in the Houston Press today: “Going under: What can happen if your anesthesiologist leaves the room during an operation.”
It’s bound to make the curious reader wonder why the anesthesiologist would leave the operating room in the first place.
Of course, reporter Dianna Wray explains that in many hospitals, one …
Will your anesthesiologist leave the OR? Patients deserve to know.
Wrong procedure, wrong side/site, wrong implant, retained foreign object: big problem. No patient should ever have to undergo these types of events, and they are therefore called never events. However, these events do occur and when they do they not only jeopardize patient safety but they also breach the trust between patient and practitioner, have financial implications, and reflect negatively on the entire health care system.
The good news is never events …
Why do never events occur? It’s because of the human factor.
Medical oncologist, Dr. Ranjana Srivastava wrote on the subject on how doctors treat doctors may be medicine’s secret shame in the Guardian back in February 2015.
About a month later, vascular surgeon Dr. Gabrielle McMullin used a book launch speech to expose the problems of sexual harassment in the surgical profession. She highlighted a story of where a neurosurgical trainee had refused sexual advances and subsequent to launching a formal complaint, …
Do patients contribute to the God complex in surgeons?
A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
I often hear patients say, “I am not afraid of the surgery, just the anesthesia.”
But should patients worry? Physician anesthesiologists suffered a crisis in confidence in 1982 when the ABC television program 20/20 aired, “The Deep Sleep: 6,000 …
The most feared medical specialty? It’s actually one of the safest.
“To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.”
– George MacDonald
As we adjust her position on the surgical table, I spot some short, vertical scars on the front of her neck. The parallel slashes sit directly over her enlarged thyroid — a goiter — and appear to have been deliberately placed. There are two sets of scratches, one set on either side of the neck, nearly identical in length and evenly …
After surgery, the scars will always remain
As a plastic surgeon, I am interested in how people look. Whether I am piecing together a fractured face or reconstructing a cancer-scarred breast, I am focused on appearance, symmetry, contour, and lines. I am always thinking about how our bodies are the physical manifestations of who we are.
What I am never thinking about is how that sentiment applies to me.
An intern …
It’s time to celebrate diversity in surgery with the #ILookLikeASurgeon hashtag.
Inspired by surgery resident Heather Logghe, who says it best: “As women surgeons, whether we are in our first year of training or an emeritus professor, it’s most important that we ourselves believe we ‘look’ like surgeons. Because we do.”
And it’s taken off.
Below is a continuously-updated Storify of this movement.
Spread the word!
