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In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

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Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#121

Post by manquer »

patrec wrote: post #15
dmurray wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eight hours! It's hard to believe the woman's condition was critical enough to require invasive surgery with these makeshift tools mid-flight, but so stable post-op that the doctors did not recommend an emergency landing. I understand they recommended against landing pre-op because of worries about cabin pressure, but why not after the surgery? She's going to have to come down at some point.

Why further inconvenience everyone else for this moron, if they (clearly correctly) judged her no longer to be in danger?

Expecting decision making to be perfect after an accident like that is ridiculous. Bike perfectly valid and commonly used word for motorcycle in many parts of the world.

The attempt to conceal comment seems to be doctor covering his errors after an inadequate physical exam before take off.

Someone trying to conceal wouldn't complain of chest problems before take off. Most airlines would remove you from the plane before even doing an exam, and won't depend on eye doctors potentially flying to do it.

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#122

Post by saary »

hammock wrote: post #113
taneq wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I say “correct” instead of saying “right.”

Doesn't help if the doctor's question was "Am I cutting into the right side?"

When I've practiced as a paramedic the best practice was to ask the patient to point to the pain and not just verbally confirm

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#123

Post by s0rce »

bouncycastle wrote: post #118
ghufran_syed wrote: post #114

The funny thing is, as an orthopedic surgeon in England, Wallace probably hadn't put in a chest tube in years, while the other "junior" doctor training in internal medicine, Tom Wong, probably did one every week. I have no inside knowledge, but I suspect Dr Wong probably did most of the procedure while the senior doctor Wallace took most of the credit later. As the senior doctor, Wallace was certainly responsible for…

That makes sense. Once I took a packet of Doritos on board, and it blew up like a balloon once the plane took off and went to cruising altitude!

I live at about 5000ft and all our packages are extra poufy. It amuses me every time I go to the store.

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#124

Post by ramses0 »

gumby wrote: post #61
Traubenfuchs wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

„emergent“ means the prevalence is increasing? Why?

From your name and punctuation I assume you’re German. Thats actually not the use here but that meaning is common. “Emerge” is simply Frenchified Latin for ausgehen. In this case however it appears to be medical (perhaps ER) slang for “rapidly becoming an emergency”

Agreed:

Chronic => continual/frequent (chronos?).

Emergent => sudden (emerge?).

"Emergency Care" => "Sudden Care".

Urgent => important (urge?).

It finally made a lot of sense realizing that an "emergent condition" is something that "comes out of nowhere" and is potentially rapidly changing. Versus "urgent care" as "something that should be taken care of promptly".

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#125

Post by dclowd9901 »

alasdair_ wrote: post #77
darekkay wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar to what happened to a doctor in Antarctica: https://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/people-in-ant...

I know a guy who went there (McMurdo in Antartica) the year after this happened (so similar situation - there is only one doctor that needs to do everything for everyone). Again, you're there for a long time and there is no help coming if you have a problem in the middle of winter. Before you go, they do as much as possible to ensure you won't have medical issues once you get there. One of the things is that they str…

Having had an infected tooth and impacted molars, I can safely say I would gleefully smash my own jaw with a 3 lb sledge to stop the kind of pain that tooth problems cause, so even a doctor with very limited experience would be exponentially better.

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#126

Post by [deleted] »

ghufran_syed wrote: post #114

The funny thing is, as an orthopedic surgeon in England, Wallace probably hadn't put in a chest tube in years, while the other "junior" doctor training in internal medicine, Tom Wong, probably did one every week. I have no inside knowledge, but I suspect Dr Wong probably did most of the procedure while the senior doctor Wallace took most of the credit later. As the senior doctor, Wallace was certainly responsible for…

[deleted]

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#127

Post by sjmm1989 »

kmano8 wrote: post #94
marcodiego wrote: post #14

I've had an spontaneous pneumothorax when I was a teenager. Had to undergo emergency surgery with only local anesthesia. The surgeon while cutting my chest asked: "You're sure it is this side, right?", which I confirmed. He then said: "Ok, if you're wrong I'm not going to jail alone."

This happened to me in college. Driving home from the movies, chest started to hurt on inhale .. I decided to "sleep it off", which obviously didn't work. Went to the ER in the morning. Got the chest tube and spent about a week seeing if it would heal naturally, then they removed the offending part of my lung, and did a mechanical pleurodesis (a procedure that sticks your lung to the chest wall so it can't collapse).…

I've gotten similar for a long time while growing up. Still get this now and then on my left side. Always my left side.

I just stretch, breath deep despite the pain and sleep it off. It... usually goes away within a day or two. The reason why I've always taken this approach is because it was always just growing pains or my ribs pinching me somehow. (Apparently that's a thing.)

That all said and done, the last time it happened I was genuinely curious and concerned, cause the last time before that I had it happen was years and years ago. And I'm not exactly growing anymore, etc. Not precisely.

But yeah. 5'6, still young-ish, and otherwise healthy I think.

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#129

Post by selimthegrim »

NittLion78 wrote: post #110
adenozine wrote: post #43

I've seen this in a rom-com before, where they poke a hole in the person's chest and they survive by decompressing the trapped fluids out of the hole. Weird to think about surviving something because you were stabbed in the right spot. Cool stuff.

Mark Wahlberg's character in Three Kings has to do this after getting shot while wearing kevlar because his lung collapsed.

I believe there is a rather gruesome in situ depiction of the pnuemothorax

Re: In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware

#130

Post by sjmm1989 »

saary wrote: post #122
hammock wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't help if the doctor's question was "Am I cutting into the right side?"

When I've practiced as a paramedic the best practice was to ask the patient to point to the pain and not just verbally confirm

This is probably the smartest move. When I am dealing with someone who doesn't seem to understand what I am saying due to language barrier, I start dealing with physical communication instead however possible. It can look odd, and be sort of funny to witness; but it works a charm more often than not. There are just some things we all generally understand once the body becomes involved.
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