Wet back

There is a doctor who sends out surgical patients who have lost more than their share of blood in back surgery, one who regularly posts 'Estimated Blood Loss' figures of 600 to 1200 mL for a two level laminectomy.  We nurses call his back surgeries 'wet', because they continue to bleed into their drains.  A lot.  Damn.  I hate it when I get one of his patients.  They are always painful, weak, pale, and vulnerable.  There is nothing I can do about it.  

To complain officially is to unleash a maelstrom of accusation, intimidation, investigation; in short, the end of my career.  It is particularly difficult for me as a nurse, given that a doctor killed my mother through negligence (proven in court, 1986).  There are so many gray areas and complex variables related to neurosurgery that the physician could flim-flam his way out of any accusations.  I would be the only loser, other than the patient, of course.  But, we nurses know.  We advise our loved ones to avoid him.

He is currently being sued for malpractice.  Today, he performed a three hour surgery on a 72 year old woman with a sub-normal hematocrit who had significant blood loss.  When I requested an order for a stat hematocrit, she was shown to be even more depleted in red blood cells.  I called him to ask for transfusion parameters, and he told me to ask someone else to follow up.  In other words, 'Not my problem, get someone else involved'.  Performing neurosurgery on a patient in a hematologically compromised condition didn't even factor into his reality.  'Let someone else deal with it.'  Geez.  Not surprisingly, the other doctor who was consulted seemed furious.

Fifteen years ago, before I was a nurse, he performed back surgery on my mother-in-law, who had lower leg numbness and pain.  From the day of the surgery on, she never stood up straight.  She canted over at a 35-40 degree angle, crabbing along on Canadian crutches. I went with her to ask why she had had such poor results.  He replied, essentially,  'Because she is old'.  Of course, he talked around the issue, saying how we just couldn't expect the same results that a thirty year old might have gotten, that she wasn't going to run any marathons, blah, blah, blah.

He had taken a vital, active senior and turned her into a frail, elderly patient.  I hate him for that.  I hope that, someday, someone will take him down, stop his 'give-a-shit' arrogance so that he stops hurting patients.

Some people have called him a 'cowboy'.  I think that's an insult to cowboys.