You haven’t spent much time around surgeons, have you?
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Ooooops!
Surgical sponges are pieces of cotton gauze used to sop the fluids in the incision which get in the way of the surgeon’s scalpel and ability to see the active area. They are indeed sometimes used in multiples, or rolled/folded, to keep certain structures or vessels away from the immediate operative area.
They tend to become blood-soaked and are occasionally hard to discern as separate structures from the patient’s own tissues, so leaving one inside a patient’s body is not an unheard-of event.
However, it is not a routine thing because during the surgery they are supposed to be COUNTED (by the senior O.R. nurse, usually) as they go in so that the surgeon, as the ultimate responsible party, can check that they have all been removed from the operative area before the incision is closed.
Sometimes patients do just fine with that piece of gauze left in (it is sterile, after all, and cotton can dissolve over time), but most often the patient reacts badly to it, gets an infection or has another healing problem, and that usually requires a second operation to recover the sponge and repair whatever damage might have been caused. So Ben apparently had bad luck with the sponge he and his surgical team left in, and was unsurprisingly sued as a result.
It’s the sort of mistake that malpractice insurance is designed for. Stuff happens, you know.
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It’s getting to the point where throwing around “shithead” to describe all of these clown car occupants is losing its efficacy.
Still, this just reinforces my belief that Carson is a complete shithead.
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SpongeBen SquarePants.
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Actually I have. That is how I know.
Most good ones are not anyone you would let care for your child while you were away.
Like I have said in other posts: “Being a narcissistic sociopath is a detriment in most professions, but in neurosurgery it is a positive BOON. The clinical detachment, the cool demeanor, not having any empathy for the “patient” all allow the surgeon to be really, REALLY good at their job. These attributes also make them HORRIBLE bosses and TERRIBLE people to have to work with.”
A good analogy is an “OCD Computer Geek/Programmer”. Absolutely fantastic at their job, difficult person to hang around with and the LAST person you would want in any management position (like President of the USA.)
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Yeah, he’s insane. Just made the mistake of reading his tweet about how the Germans could/would have prevented the Holocaust if they’d had guns.
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Sat hello to the next Bill Cosby! DOWN THE DRAIN, and rightly so!
This guy graduated at the top of his class…in the Kevin McCarthy School of Public Speaking. What in the world is he talking about??
Top of his class, youtube school of medicine.
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/article/Unlicensed-doctor-in-Vegas-says-he-s-6559154.php
how is it even possible that this guy is still in the running?
reminds me of the Peter Sellers movie “Being There”
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SpongeBen
A surgical sponge is basically a small bar towel used to sop up blood.
Carson has been sued for malpractice at least six times.
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Narcissistic Sociopaths are often your best possible personality for master surgeons. They do not let reality of any sort intervene in what they are doing
In social settings they also “program” themselves to be social with the same rehearsed honed technique they established in the surgical operating room - which gives them the illusion of humanity.
Until we can more properly incorporate robotics to absorb and guide the hands of surgeons (as well as absorb the tremors and the emotional reactions) “cold blooded bastard” is the kind of personality type you want your loved one under the knife of
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They can also adhere to surrounding tissues, making complete removal difficult or even dangerous. Some sponges are absorbable. There isn’t enough info here, and judging his surgical skills on the basis of an Enquirer article is really foolish.
Judging him on the basis of his lack of qualifications to be President, on the other hand, is really wise.
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Like Sarah Palin he chooses the questions he’d prefer the person to have asked and then answers that
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I wonder if Trump could send him a case of “Making a better tomorrow tomorrow” towels like he did for Rubio
Oh wait that was Colbert’s slogan
I’ve been wondering why a surgeon with a supposedly good reputation would leave such a highly trained and important profession to take part in crackpot politics – but perhaps he stopped performing surgery because he was losing his faculties and the lawsuits forced him out.
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This is a stupid line of questioning, which has nothing to do with Carson’s qualifications for political office. However, he is a narcissist and most of the publicity about him alludes to his allegedly stellar medical career.
Remember that Neurosurgeons have the highest rate of lawsuits of all medical specialties, perhaps 20% of them will be sued in any given year
( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3204310/)
So, he ought to just say, “Its a well known and easy mistake to make and the normal safeguards that we use in the OR, did not work to prevent it on this occasion. I regret it”
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Quak quak.
Wouldn’t let this hack come anywhere near my family.
Shit happens, what ya gonna do…charge the surgeon, he can’t take all of us out with that scalpel…he he he
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