Treatment of People Under Anaesthesia

[greg775]

Did you see the item about the guy who was put under anaesthesia for his colonoscopy? He secretly recorded the session on his i phone and discovered the doctor was mocking him, making rude remarks and jokes and generally abusing him verbally while he was under anaesthesia.

 

It has made me wonder about the behavior of medical personnel nowadays. To any of you in the business ... is this commonplace with renegade doctors/anaestehsiologists? Do they mock patients all the time while they are under? Are doctors and nurses giving their best efforts during our heart surgeries and other operations or do they mess with patients all the time??

 

I have a buddy who just had a double bypass. He was intense pain a day after surgery. His son asked the surgeon assistant, "My dad wonders why the pain medication isn't working well." The assistant said, "He has no pain medication; he didn't ask for it." The son angrily said, "He's asking for it now." They didn't even ask him if he was in pain and wanted medication. Is this common?

He also said the nurses did not offer to clean him up with a sponge shower until the son asked. The man had all this surgical goop on him, etc. Also the son said they were moving him around too forcibly, his dad in obvious pain.

 

I know paying for medical care is an issue and through the roof, but what about the PERFORMANCE of doctors and nurses. Is it good in America and in your hospitals or shoddy? Is abuse/joking about people going on while they are under?

Edited June 26, 2015 by greg775

[ShandyMan]

I have had the opportunity, being a PT student currently, to observe multiple surgeries throughout my clinical rotations.

 

I have never experienced any type of behavior remotely close to this. Each time that I have been in a surgery, the entire medical team was 110% professional and absolutely immersed in their work.

 

It's sad that this occurs.

[greg775]

I have had the opportunity, being a PT student currently, to observe multiple surgeries throughout my clinical rotations.

 

I have never experienced any type of behavior remotely close to this. Each time that I have been in a surgery, the entire medical team was 110% professional and absolutely immersed in their work.

 

It's sad that this occurs.

Thank goodness.

[daa84]

Did you see the item about the guy who was put under anaesthesia for his colonoscopy? He secretly recorded the session on his i phone and discovered the doctor was mocking him, making rude remarks and jokes and generally abusing him verbally while he was under anaesthesia.

 

It has made me wonder about the behavior of medical personnel nowadays. To any of you in the business ... is this commonplace with renegade doctors/anaestehsiologists? Do they mock patients all the time while they are under? Are doctors and nurses giving their best efforts during our heart surgeries and other operations or do they mess with patients all the time??

 

I have a buddy who just had a double bypass. He was intense pain a day after surgery. His son asked the surgeon assistant, "My dad wonders why the pain medication isn't working well." The assistant said, "He has no pain medication; he didn't ask for it." The son angrily said, "He's asking for it now." They didn't even ask him if he was in pain and wanted medication. Is this common?

He also said the nurses did not offer to clean him up with a sponge shower until the son asked. The man had all this surgical goop on him, etc. Also the son said they were moving him around too forcibly, his dad in obvious pain.

 

I know paying for medical care is an issue and through the roof, but what about the PERFORMANCE of doctors and nurses. Is it good in America and in your hospitals or shoddy? Is abuse/joking about people going on while they are under?

Like everything else, there is good medical care and there is bad medical care. This means good MDs, bad MDs, good nurses , bad nurses, etc. As far as the pain meds go, narcotics are often ordered prn (as needed), as scheduling them is more prone to complication. Like most medical errors, it seems like poor communication lead to this mixup as the patient didn't know he could ask for some

 

In regards to the anesthesia part, the recent story is certainly an extreme example. To answer your question of do patients get mocked while under? I can't say I have t seen it. It's nothing like this story, but I've witnessed smaller things. For example, when positioning an obese patient prior to surgery, I've seen some make comments regarding their weight, ie "God this guy weighs a ton" things like that. Nothing too harmful, but probably not something you'd say if the patient was conscious. In general, I don't feel there is any abuse or malpractice In the things I've seen.

 

To answer your question regarding if doctors and nurses give their best efforts, I can truly say that during a procedure, I have never thought that the one performing the procedure was giving it anythin less than their best. Simply, too much is at stake. Now post-op care, answering patient questions, clinic visits, etc - yes plenty of people give less than what they should

Edited June 29, 2015 by daa84

[RegionSox]

I have to wonder how he got his iphone in with him to record the procedure. Sneak it in his hospital gown?

[greg775]

Like everything else, there is good medical care and there is bad medical care. This means good MDs, bad MDs, good nurses , bad nurses, etc. As far as the pain meds go, narcotics are often ordered prn (as needed), as scheduling them is more prone to complication. Like most medical errors, it seems like poor communication lead to this mixup as the patient didn't know he could ask for some

 

In regards to the anesthesia part, the recent story is certainly an extreme example. To answer your question of do patients get mocked while under? I can't say I have t seen it. It's nothing like this story, but I've witnessed smaller things. For example, when positioning an obese patient prior to surgery, I've seen some make comments regarding their weight, ie "God this guy weighs a ton" things like that. Nothing too harmful, but probably not something you'd say if the patient was conscious. In general, I don't feel there is any abuse or malpractice In the things I've seen.

 

To answer your question regarding if doctors and nurses give their best efforts, I can truly say that during a procedure, I have never thought that the one performing the procedure was giving it anythin less than their best. Simply, too much is at stake. Now post-op care, answering patient questions, clinic visits, etc - yes plenty of people give less than what they should

 

Thanks for your reply. This is educational for me.

I don't understand why post-op care is so shabby. Like in the case of my friend. His son told me they wanted him out of the hospital after 2 days. My friend with the bypass was in no condition to be dragged home like a beached whale. The surgeon assistant said, "the doctor thinks he can go home." My friend's son said, "I am willing to speak with him. Tell him to come by. My dad isn't ready to go home." The surgeon assistant backed off and said, "Well he can stay another day."

Why this blatant disregard for patients? We need to treat human beings with more dignity than this when they are in their most vulnerable states!

[Jake]

I don't know what it says about me or human nature or healthcare in general, but my first reaction to that story was "well at least they restricted it to verbal abuse"

[ptatc]

Did you see the item about the guy who was put under anaesthesia for his colonoscopy? He secretly recorded the session on his i phone and discovered the doctor was mocking him, making rude remarks and jokes and generally abusing him verbally while he was under anaesthesia.

 

It has made me wonder about the behavior of medical personnel nowadays. To any of you in the business ... is this commonplace with renegade doctors/anaestehsiologists? Do they mock patients all the time while they are under? Are doctors and nurses giving their best efforts during our heart surgeries and other operations or do they mess with patients all the time??

 

I have a buddy who just had a double bypass. He was intense pain a day after surgery. His son asked the surgeon assistant, "My dad wonders why the pain medication isn't working well." The assistant said, "He has no pain medication; he didn't ask for it." The son angrily said, "He's asking for it now." They didn't even ask him if he was in pain and wanted medication. Is this common?

He also said the nurses did not offer to clean him up with a sponge shower until the son asked. The man had all this surgical goop on him, etc. Also the son said they were moving him around too forcibly, his dad in obvious pain.

 

I know paying for medical care is an issue and through the roof, but what about the PERFORMANCE of doctors and nurses. Is it good in America and in your hospitals or shoddy? Is abuse/joking about people going on while they are under?

Never seen it in nearly 30 years as a PT/ATC and I've been in plenty of operating rooms. My experience has mostly in athletics however so my experience is mostly with orthopedic surgeons not internal med guys. you can bet they all are giving their best efforts if only from a liability/law suit perspective.

 

However, don't you need to have a "special" sense of humor to perform colonoscopies on a regular basis?

Edited June 30, 2015 by ptatc

[Jake]

Never seen it in nearly 30 years as a PT/ATC and I've been in plenty of operating rooms. My experience has mostly in athletics however so my experience is mostly with orthopedic surgeons not internal med guys. you can bet they all are giving their best efforts if only from a liability/law suit perspective.

 

However, don't you need to have a "special" sense of humor to perform colonoscopies on a regular basis?

 

Isn't there some saying about opinions and assholes?

[Texsox]

My first wife worked in radiology and I spent a lot of time around the ER. They had a unique, for internal consumption only, sense of humor. The first one I remember was perhaps the worst. "Pass the Bible, he's studying for the final". But when you are faced with serious cases all day long, grim reaper humor is perhaps one of the healthiest ways to cope. I don't think it ever affected the level of care a person received. They were so well trained and practiced that things kjust sort of kicked in and away they went.

 

While non medical people would find this appalling, is it really much different than any other profession? Salespeople mock their customers at times. We mock each other at jobs. It's a part of many work places cultures. While your colon may be a special place to you, to the rest of the people in the room, you're just another asshole they have to deal with.

[greg775]

My first wife worked in radiology and I spent a lot of time around the ER. They had a unique, for internal consumption only, sense of humor. The first one I remember was perhaps the worst. "Pass the Bible, he's studying for the final". But when you are faced with serious cases all day long, grim reaper humor is perhaps one of the healthiest ways to cope. I don't think it ever affected the level of care a person received. They were so well trained and practiced that things kjust sort of kicked in and away they went.

 

While non medical people would find this appalling, is it really much different than any other profession? Salespeople mock their customers at times. We mock each other at jobs. It's a part of many work places cultures. While your colon may be a special place to you, to the rest of the people in the room, you're just another asshole they have to deal with.

 

Yeah, but when somebody is splitting you open you don't want them saying, "Can you believe this fatass? He needs to get on the treadmill" etc.

[Texsox]

Yeah, but when somebody is splitting you open you don't want them saying, "Can you believe this fatass? He needs to get on the treadmill" etc.

 

I don't know. It's better than why don't we f*** this up and put this guy out of his misery he is an organ donor . . .

 

With me they might be saying, hey this tattoo on his ass says "exit only", he has no idea how wrong that tattoo it