[ RadSafe ] How to avoid falling victim to a hospital mistake - or nuclear reactor or pilot error

[HOWARD.LONG at comcast.net]

Jess, 

You are correct that cook books are necessary, like a pilot's check list for landing, sponge counts in surgery, etc At Chernobyl, book should have been followed to stay out of trouble. But a junior operator should have questioned that superior forcefully (not followed the book) when his superior deviated - something unthinkable in a dictatorial regime like the USA is becoming. 



Why I quit hopital care does illustrate why cook books are insufficient and should not dictate individual circumstances. 

At committee investigating my not following the book (delivering a breech baby with cord hanging out in the delivery room instead of taking time, an extra half hour, to set her up for Caesarian surgery upstairs) 

 a doctor commented, "Standard procedure is what matters, not whether the result is good." 

Then he blushed in embarassment at this confession that lawyers (and their books) dictate care, because the  startled mother looked up with amazement from  her thriving 2 month old baby. 

I had brought the patients to the hearing  (again, not standard, "book" procedure).   



Like Sully, who did not gamble that his powerless airliner could glide to a questionably reachable airport (book procedure), but believed his people would do better with his landing in the river, I, too, believed I had enough control - by monitoring the pulse in the protruding cord and with the full dilation of the cervix  I could do a breech extraction (pull the baby out by the legs) and revive the baby, with finger pulses on the heart and puffs into the lungs,  in the few moments before brain damage. I did. 



Of course I lost OB privileges at that hospital, as dictated by lawyers, who would now dictate all medical care to fit averages.. Remember the statistician who drowned, wading across a stream that AVERAGED one foot depth? 



Cook books are necessary, but not sufficient - in nuclear engineering or health care. 

Avoid czar "care". I trust the judgement of HPs with great experience much more than  bureaucrats' political dictates (laws) 



Howard Long 


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jess Addis" <ajess at clemson.edu> 
To: "HOWARD LONG" <HOWARD.LONG at comcast.net>, "Bob Cherry" <bobcherry at satx.rr.com> 
Cc: radsafe at radlab.nl 
Sent: Friday, November 13, 2009 6:16:02 PM GMT -08:00 Tijuana / Baja California 
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] How to avoid falling victim to a hospital mistake -        CNN.com 

"I stopped obstetrics and surgery and any hospital work many years ago because hospital bureaucracies, require cook-book care (like the present bills accepted by Dem leaders)." 


Thank you. That you took this opportunity to give some insight into your political views in interesting. 

"cook-book care"?  You mean like making sure the person being x-rayed or otherwise exposed to diagnostic procedure using ionizing radiation was not pregnant? 

That's not cook book care IMHO, it's proper procedure, following a protocol to help ensure No HARM. It helps to weed out error by otherwise harried individuals trying to do their jobs and provide care for suffering patients. 

No, I'm not in the health care business, but we used that "cook book" stuff to keep from making mistakes in important things like operating nuclear reactors, .... and stuff. 

What was the reason you "stopped obstetrics and surgery" again? 

Larry Addis, RSO 
Clemson University