Flashermac Posted September 7, 2012 Report Share Posted September 7, 2012 A 72-year-old man having a tumour removed from his kidney died after the chief anesthetist and nurse took a lunch break in the middle of the surgery. The incident, which took place at the Lidköping hospital, has prompted stinging criticism from Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen). The 72-year-old went under anesthetic at 10.45am on the day of the operation, which took place in January 2011. At noon sharp, the head anesthetist left the operating room to go for lunch. Fifteen minutes later, the head nurse anesthetist also left the patient and went for lunch. No other anesthetist was called in to take over responsibility for the doctor who was on his lunch break. And while another nurse was brought in to cover for the nurse anesthetist, the nurse who arrived came from the orthopedic ward and wasn't familiar with the respirator to which the 72-year-old was attached. Suddenly, the patient started hemorrhaging and his blood pressure started to drop, sparking a "chaotic" situation. As the patient's condition became critical shortly before 1pm, the substitute nurse tried desperately to reach the lunching anesthetist, but to no avail. When the doctor and the primary nurse anesthetist returned to the operating room, they discovered that the patient's respirator had been turned off, leaving him without oxygen for approximately eight minutes. Despite immediately starting resuscitation efforts, doctors were unable to revive the man, who had suffered irreparable brain damage and died several weeks later. The man's daughter subsequently reported the incident to the health board, which on Tuesday issued a harsh critique of the hospital's procedures. "The operational planning, which allowed for the responsible doctor and nurse to take lunch breaks at the same time without any other doctor taking responsibility for the patient, entails taking an unacceptable risk," the agency wrote in its findings. The agency also found fault with the fact that the doctor wasn't reachable by phone, as well as with the decision to hand responsibility for a high-risk patient with a single nurse who lacked sufficient knowledge of the equipment in use during the operation. "The National Board of Health and Welfare finds, however, that the operation's lack of organization as well as the chaotic situation which occurred was the underlying causes behind the misjudgments and insufficient care," the agency wrote. My link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bangkoktraveler Posted September 7, 2012 Report Share Posted September 7, 2012 Sounds like an incident out of the play book for USA health care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allistar Posted September 7, 2012 Report Share Posted September 7, 2012 Except that, in the U.S., the doctor, nurse and hospital would be looking at lawsuits totaling several million dollars. I'd try not to be operated in Sweden around the breakfast, lunch and dinner hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bangkoktraveler Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 Except that, in the U.S., the doctor, nurse and hospital would be looking at lawsuits totaling several million dollars. I'd try not to be operated in Sweden around the breakfast, lunch and dinner hours. Suing 'everybody' in the USA is not as easy as people think. Sure, there are lawyers who will take a case for only a percentage of the settlement, but if the case goes to litigation, even those lawyers have clauses in their contracts that the one doing the suing might have to come up with some money for expenses. It is this part that discourages lawsuits from going to trial and the ones causing the 'trouble' know it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCorinthian Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 Suing 'everybody' in the USA is not as easy as people think. Suing for wrongful death sure is...!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelgianBoy Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 is there a rightfull death ....? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pai mei Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 A 72-year-old man having a tumour removed from his kidney died after the chief anesthetist and nurse took a lunch break in the middle of the surgery. The incident, which took place at the Lidköping hospital, has prompted stinging criticism from Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen). The 72-year-old went under anesthetic at 10.45am on the day of the operation, which took place in January 2011. At noon sharp, the head anesthetist left the operating room to go for lunch. Fifteen minutes later, the head nurse anesthetist also left the patient and went for lunch. Rotten story. Sidenote: CRNAs (nurse anesthetist) in the sites I work make close to 200k USD a year. If they're doing lots of overtime forget it, their pay is sick. For whatever reason it's a difficult job to get, there's a shortage yet also a backlog queue to get into the training programs. The people that do it make so much money nobody wants to lose that and go teach. The irony is - it's one of the easier nursing jobs, normally. Until you fuck up (see above). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamui Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 is there a rightfull death ....? Ask Bin Laden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCorinthian Posted September 9, 2012 Report Share Posted September 9, 2012 is there a rightfull death ....? Absolutely. How many people did the Belgian Resistance kill again...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelgianBoy Posted September 9, 2012 Report Share Posted September 9, 2012 Absolutely. How many people did the Belgian Resistance kill again...? my question was in jest answering your question is easy, many times they took justice into their own hands and killed wrongfully their own innocent people, certainly after the liberation in 1944.....to this day, some families are still waiting for official amnesty for some of their parents or grandparents. BB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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