Oops med student stories?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Not asking if a railing is metal is considered an "oops"???
 
First couple days on surgery I'm leaning over a patient for a couple hours trying to catch a glimpse of the surgical field between attending resident and fellow. Realize multiple hours in that I've been putting most of my body weight on my closed hand which is on the patients nads. Extubates fine and go to check on him in the post op area and he is only complaining of pain in the sack.

Never told anyone on my team and told him it was normal and would go away haha
 
Had an outpatient pediatric rotation and on the first day I went to the wrong pediatrics practice. Turns out the practice had almost the exact same name as where I was supposed to be and also took students from my school, so the nurse gave me an orientation of the office and what the expectations were before asking which attending I was working with and then informing me he worked at the practice across the street. Really set the tone for what ended up being my least favorite rotation...
 
On OB/GYN for surgical gynecology, I served as the uterine manipulator for a robotic total hysterectomy. My job essentially involved using a large metal dildo to apply pressure to expose the field from above as directed by the surgeon.

Unfortunately, the patient was hugely obese - so much so that her pannus completely covered her vagina and there was no hope of finding that cavern. At the beginning of the case, I simply followed the foley that was in place to insert the manipulator and off we went.

About an hour into the case the attending expresses concern about the view and asks me to ensure that I’m in the vagina. I say yes. Another 30 minutes go by, she leaves the robotics console, and comes over to the field. We remove the manipulator and, to my horror, I was in the rectum the entire time.

Had to get GI in to do a stat sigmoidoscopy which showed some pretty impressive bruising on the bowel wall, but otherwise no issues.

Words can’t describe my horror and embarrassment.
 
On OB/GYN for surgical gynecology, I served as the uterine manipulator for a robotic total hysterectomy. My job essentially involved using a large metal dildo to apply pressure to expose the field from above as directed by the surgeon.

Unfortunately, the patient was hugely obese - so much so that her pannus completely covered her vagina and there was no hope of finding that cavern. At the beginning of the case, I simply followed the foley that was in place to insert the manipulator and off we went.

About an hour into the case the attending expresses concern about the view and asks me to ensure that I’m in the vagina. I say yes. Another 30 minutes go by, she leaves the robotics console, and comes over to the field. We remove the manipulator and, to my horror, I was in the rectum the entire time.

Had to get GI in to do a stat sigmoidoscopy which showed some pretty impressive bruising on the bowel wall, but otherwise no issues.

Words can’t describe my horror and embarrassment.

Did you at least call her afterwards?
 
First couple days on surgery I'm leaning over a patient for a couple hours trying to catch a glimpse of the surgical field between attending resident and fellow. Realize multiple hours in that I've been putting most of my body weight on my closed hand which is on the patients nads. Extubates fine and go to check on him in the post op area and he is only complaining of pain in the sack.

Never told anyone on my team and told him it was normal and would go away haha
This is why we can't have nice things
 
Did you at least call her afterwards?

I can’t tell if this is a sexual joke or an actual concern, so in the event of the latter, no, I didn’t talk with her after the case, though the resident taking care of her post-op informed her of the error.
 
I can’t tell if this is a sexual joke or an actual concern, so in the event of the latter, no, I didn’t talk with her after the case, though the resident taking care of her post-op informed her of the error.
Were you interested in OBGYN or Surgery before this?
 
That’s funny! A student rotating with me did the exact same thing. It was especially funny because the attending knew it and yelled “you’ve got to be kidding me are you in the ass?!” The student was a gunner type too, making it even more fun.
 
As for my biggest face palm, on OB I did an entire 20 minute interview with the impression a patient was pregnant. She wasn’t pregnant she was just fat.

I literally asked questions like “do you have fetal movement?” And other pregnancy questions to which she would answer no with a straight face.

I then presented this pseudo pregnant patient to my resident who thought it was hysterical. Good times!
 
I was on surgery and interviewing this youngish woman pre-op. There was an older gentleman with her, and after she mentioned her dad I turn to him and go, "And you're the father?" He was stone-faced, and of course replied, "No, I'm her husband."

I stammered, and back-pedaled, and apologized, etc., but eventually all was well when I told him, "Hey don't worry, I'm gonna go ahead and punch myself when I leave here."
 
I was on surgery and interviewing this youngish woman pre-op. There was an older gentleman with her, and after she mentioned her dad I turn to him and go, "And you're the father?" He was stone-faced, and of course replied, "No, I'm her husband."

I stammered, and back-pedaled, and apologized, etc., but eventually all was well when I told him, "Hey don't worry, I'm gonna go ahead and punch myself when I leave here."
I've kicked myself one too many times over this. My go-to line is "and your relation to the patient is...?" I have called so many husbands "dads" or "grandpas" I have lost count.
 
Similar to yours, except my go-to phrase was “Oh, interesting.” Luckily an SP caught that and said to never say that again.
Out of curiosity for my future self, what should you say? Noted? Lol!
 
Out of curiosity for my future self, what should you say? Noted? Lol!

I've always just determined that no matter the answer to my question in these situations I'm going to say something neutral and move on quickly. Something like "alright".
 
Top