It seems like the surgeon is the one running the show in the OR. Our surgeons sometimes flip out on nurses for not having the proper sized steri-strips or the proper sutures ready. Has a surgeon ever flipped on you?
Flipped out? No. Bitched a little? Sure. It's usually the "hurry up so I can take my time" kinda thing.
But, I did hear a story one time about a surgeon who freaked out and yelled at the top of his lungs at an anesthesiologist in the room because he was having trouble getting a complex case started with a lot of lines, etc. The surgeon was standing in the corner and, according to the legend of this story, everything was super difficult in this patient. Poor access, poor peripheral pulses, fat neck, etc. It took about an hour-and-a-half to get everything in place before the surgeon could scrub. Dude was fuming and, when he came back to the room, draped the patient, and subsequently went to put the scapel on the skin, the patient moved a little.
That was the last straw. The surgeon just absolutely snapped.
He went on about a five-minute tirade about how this gas passer had wasted all this time, that now the second case was going to be delayed, that he should go back to residency and get more training, that he didn't know what he was doing, sarcastically saying things like "
why don't you just wake the patient up and we'll do the surgery under better conditions", etc., etc. At the end, he was fuming and beet-red and in his most sarcastic voice asked the anesthesiologist, "
So, do you think it'd be possible to get this case done in the next ten hours without having the patient reach up and help me with the surgery?"
The anesthesiologist just poked his head up over the curtain and said, "I'm sorry. I didn't catch any of that. Do you mind repeating yourself?"
Everyone in the room burst out in laughter. No need to guess who ultimately ended up looking like the jackass that day.
-copro
