Lost and Gone Forever

Dressed up for clinic.  I've been getting
teased that I look like a  nerd in this pic.  Oh well.

This week I started my rotation at the BSES city hospital.  Last week I was in a semi-slum clinic following Dr. Hajari.  In the hospital we were given the department we wanted to follow for the day and I chose surgery.  After I changed into scrubs I went in to watch the end of what I think was a hysterectomy.  Apparently the surgeon had lost one of the suture needles, and they were in the process of taking an x-ray of the lady’s belly to see if it was still inside the body cavity before closing.  The lady was completely awake, not intubated, there was no anesthesiologist in the room, and her belly was completely cut open (I could see all of her guts).  On top of that, the bed’s mechanical lift battery was uncharged so they were trying to manually lift the bed high enough to slide the x-ray machine under.  ON TOP OF THAT… the surgeon was rooting around inside the lady’s open incision with both hands looking for the needle while the lady moaned in agony (I think the lower half of her body was relatively numb because she wasn’t screaming).  The lady then started throwing up.  It ended with the x-ray getting taken, the anesthesiologist putting her under, and then she was sewn up.  It was kind of a drastic first surgery experience.