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Surgeons call them "never events,” because they are supposed to never happen: things like leaving a piece of equipment in someone or removing the wrong body part. But despite major efforts to reduce medical errors, these “never events” still occur more than 4,000 times each year in the U.S. That finding is in the journal Surgery. [Winta Mehtsun et al., Surgical Never Events In the United States]
Researchers sifted through thousands of malpractice claims. They found surgeons leave a foreign object inside at least 39 patients each week. And wrong procedures or incorrect site surgeries each occur 20 or more times per week.
Such incidents are obviously preventable. Checklists and equipment counts are supposed to take place in the operating room. Even if you're comatose when going under the knife, you can have a conversation with your doctor beforehand to make sure everyone knows what operation is scheduled. And feel free to ask for a permanent marker drawing on your body. So that the surgeon is greeted with an inked note that says something clear, such as, “Take Out T his Kidney.”
—Katherine Harmon
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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6 Comments
Add CommentGuess that's why it's a surgeon who invented Murphy's law.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow many people die annually because of this? Do we need an executive order to outlaw surgical instruments because they kill people? You know, if they are killing people.....?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisah, the postman...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswell, how many thousands of people are SAVED by surgeons with surgical instruments?
and since we know from which corner you're trying to shoot, how many people are SAVED by gunners with gunning instruments?
And then we put the numbers in relation to each other:
death/saved by surgeons
death/saved by weapons
and it looks even worse.
Hm, I forgot, you want to plant armed guards in front of every school? And before you trip over a funny reply, do you know how the batman killer got his guns into the cinema? Would be a piece of cake to do the same at any school!
BTW why haven't you commented on the latest climate developments? Starting to feel too obviously wrong? Naw, don't bother.
Quite a rant, jct, and totally off topic. I'd bite, but you're really kind of all over the place, so I'll wait till a proper article. Take your meds now and calm down.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYour comment here is without any doubt whatsoever referring to gun control to which you are opposed, concurring with your opinions on the last election and climate change, all of which you posted on SciAm.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOr are you denying that your comment here refers to gun control?
As usual when you read the reply you realized how daft your comment was and how easy to deflate and now you want us to believe that you only meant surgery?
I am right on target if you get the pun. And you know it.
Here, I'll give you a reason to whine:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this'Quite a rant'
it's not, it's showing how ridiculous your comment is
'totally off topic'
absolutely not and everybody knows it
'I'd bite'
you're slow, plenty of time for me to get a rabies shot
'but you're really kind of all over the place'
haven't been posting here in a long while, especially not since I've been accused of writing a mysoginistic and hateful comment when I had commented in support of North-African women who are kept from schools and jobs by their macho husbands. Which was rather a case of pure social comparison bias cloaked in a zivilitic comment of the dumbest sort.
'so I'll wait till a proper article'
I'd like know what you call a proper article. One that mirrors your opinions on the last election, climate change and gun-control? Looking forward to seeing what you consider a proper article.
'Take your meds now and calm down'
oh boy, another pathetic attempt at right-wing humour 'sigh - yawn'