Medical things you didn’t know?

[Emptychairdoasolo]

Just watching a medical drama and wondered what happens if you die on the operating table? Do they just sew you back up without repairing anything inside?

but also had me thinking what other medical things didn’t you know until you maybe experienced them or learned?

You open the door and then keep going till you find the nearest opening window and open that.

There are some types of IV antibiotics that you can taste after they put them in the line

If you have bladder surgery, they put dye in the bladder to check for leaks and you pee blue afterwards

General anaesthetic is not like being asleep. You don't dream.

Having had fentanyl, I can 100% understand why people get desperately addicted to it.

Just how often doctors eff things up. It's a lot.

In the Archie Battersby case his mother refused to allow Drs to do the brain stem tests until such a point where the damage and necrosis to his brain was so extensive that they simply couldn’t fulfil one of the criteria and that then meant he ‘failed’ the test and couldn’t be declared BSD.

Very often family’s are in denial about the reality of a situation and refuse to allow certain procedures to take place meaning the medical teams have no option but to go down the legal
route to enable them to either perform or withhold treatment which they as professionals believe is in the best interests of the patient but is in conflict with the views or beliefs of the next of kin.

@Happinessischeeseontoast a mixture of denial, misunderstanding, and the financial interests of some very unscruplous people, basically.

Don't talk tripe! Exactly how long do you think it takes to mention opening a window?

Untrue. That’s why babies’ long sightedness gets better as they grow and teenagers often get short sighted.

When i was a ward nurse i always opened a window, however im now an A&E nurse and theres no to open. It was mentioned in my A&E training however, as generally A&E deaths are unexpected so the rituals are different. But we were told it is often comforting to the family when told why a window is opened. Post death care, especially where i work, is more about caring for the family left behind. Also what we can do is different. In a suspicious death we cant wash them for example. We cant take out all lines incase they are needed. But the training as well as caring for our patient post death, also included caring for families and opening windows was included as a source of comfort.

Can't remember the username but why can only 1% of organs be donated? it’s not that only 1% of organs can be donated, but that only 1% of potential organ donors die in such a way that they are eligible to be organ donors.

So although you might carry a card, the chances of you dying by sustaining a severe brain injury which will leave you brain dead and eligible to donate are slim.

You are in fact more likely to need an organ than to ever be in a position to donate one.

It is not tripe. What other mumbo jumbo are they asking nurses to do?
This makes a mockery of the system who is meant to rely on science based treatments.

I don't really believe in 'souls' or anything but I find it really odd about the opening the window - I find it strange the idea a nurse would want to release it without the family 'consent'? What if the family want to say goodbye to the 'soul' and arrive to find it 'gone'? I'm not expressing myself well but it's just really odd to me. Tbh I'm really not sure what I'd feel if a nurse did this to one of my family - like maybe the deceased person wouldn't have wanted that because they didn't believe in it? I don't know - got me in a bit of a pickle, I don' think it's right to put superstition or ritual belief on to someone who doesn't have a choice?

When you laugh, your ovaries jiggle about.

No red and white flowers together comes from blood and bandages in the war

Nursing isnt medical. The nursing model is holistic, the treatment of the whole patient, their spiritual, social and cultural needs for example are considered, its about caring for more than just presenting symptoms at that time. The medical model is about diagnosis and treatment of illness, disease, or injury.

But if you believe in that, a nurse opening a window wouldn’t force a soul to leave surely, it’s not opening the door to a vacuum!

A lot of the things mentioned on here I do know, like bad teeth causing heart problems, but because I know them I assume others do. It’s funny what you remember.

In what way os donor transplant brutal? And what type of transplant you are talking here?

This is a super interesting thread! It has also reminded me (yet again) of the incredible work people in the NHS do. Thank you for your care, and especially for treating dead people with such courtesy. As a family member, I would appreciate that. Thank you for all you do.

Good luck with your fight for better salaries and conditions - you deserve both.

Death rituals vary by country and culture, of course. Opening a window to let the soul out is usual in Scotland, in the Highlands. Or was - and someone better do it for me!

And no one spent any time (and so money) teaching me to open the window, it’s what you pick up on the job.

As usual, you get an interesting thread and some idiot comes along and derails it. It's tedious.

And as for the OPs question about whether people are just sewed up on the outside without repairing the inside if they die on the operating table that’s the case from the couple of theatre deaths I’ve witnessed.

Are you sure he is yours?!

😁

This has made my ovaries jiggle :)

Many years ago a famous actor was alone on our ward visiting his dying aunt. He was one of the old actor types, a bit of comedy/singing/straight acting, but looked so lost and grief stricken. Not like the person you see on TV. We made him a brew in a staff mug, and pulled the curtains round, and he was ever so grateful, I can still see him gripping onto that mug for dear life.

The smell is really not the reason at al. People who are alive often smell worse!