What's the Difference Between an Auto Mechanic and a Medical Surgeon?

By stephen Bucaro

Doctors in West Virginia refused to treat patients because of rising medical malpractice insurance premiums. A majority of doctors in most other states are cutting back on patient care because of rising malpractice insurance premiums. I have a riddle for those doctors: What's the difference between an auto mechanic and a medical surgeon? Answer: An auto mechanic doesn't leave his tools inside the object he worked on!

A study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard School of Public Health found that surgeons ignore the standard practice of counting the surgical tools before and after an operation, resulting in tools being left inside the bodies of 1,500 people each year. The actual number of people with surgical tools left inside their bodies is much higher because hospitals are not required to report mistakes.

Surgeons leave clamps, electrodes, sponges and other surgical tools inside the bodies of people. In several cases, 11 inch metal retractors where left inside people. Sometimes the people didn't know that a surgical tool had been left inside their body. Many of the tools where found in later surgeries.

The surgical tools left inside people often cause obstructions, tissue damage, or cause infections. The individuals are then required to endure additional surgery to remove the surgical tools. Claiming "reasons of privacy", researchers withheld information about people that died from complications caused by surgical tools left inside their bodies.

Maybe medical malpractice insurance premiums wouldn't be so high if the doctors stayed awake and alert during surgery, or if they at least followed the standard medical practice of counting the surgical tools before and after an operation. I think the doctors are correct to refuse to treat patients. If they don't treat any patients, they can't leave their surgical tools inside peoples bodies!

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