Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Medical things you didn’t know?

738 replies

Emptychairdoasolo · 04/07/2023 21:09

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?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
DeathWinsAGolfish · 04/07/2023 22:10

@Spidey66 As a nurse of 37 years I can confirm, a window is always opened to free the soul.

DeathWinsAGolfish · 04/07/2023 22:12

I can also agree with @SockQueen, 30 years in theatre can count the deaths on one hand.

Kelpi · 04/07/2023 22:15

Destiny123 · 04/07/2023 21:46

You can be brain stem dead and still heart beating. This is the most common form organ donor and known as heart beating donor

Show quote history

Hang on a minute... So someone can be alive but brainstem dead, and they get taken to surgery and just... Carved up? In what order? Does that kind of make the person who takes out the organs feel like a murderer?! After all, the donor goes into surgery with a beating heart and comes out without a heart at all.

Destiny123 · 04/07/2023 22:19

YouAndMeAndThem · 04/07/2023 21:48

I knew about that but didn't realise that the person would be declared dead and a death certificate done, before the heart beating donation takes place!

Show quote history

Theyre declared dead prior to organ donation which is known as death by neurological criteria

(legal requirement else technically we are killing them by removing heart/lungs)

The death certificate doesn't get done until the next few days (same as a cardiac death patient). If there's any chance of needing a post mortem we discuss with the Coroner's prior to proceeding with organ donation as they have the final say

justawee · 04/07/2023 22:20

Spidey66 · 04/07/2023 21:30

When you die most nurses will open a window to allow your soul out

I doubt that's the reason. I think it's more likely to prevent any smell.

It is very much to let your soul out!

DoIWantThis · 04/07/2023 22:21

DustyLee123 - that's just lovely x

squirrel76 · 04/07/2023 22:22

cheapskatemum · 04/07/2023 22:06

Mine is a bit boring in comparison, but I only learned yesterday that the HPV vaccine goes into the muscle that is right at the top of the arm. I put emla cream on too low down, so it was no use at all when the young person I was supporting had her jab.

Most vaccines will go in the muscle at the top of the arm and emla cream doesn't really do anything for injections as the injection is into the muscle, it can have a placebo effect though

TicTac80 · 04/07/2023 22:23

Nurse here....yes, we open the window when someone passes to let the soul out. I know that sounds like we're crazy and superstitious, but we do it for the patient.

Also, no, they don't smell (unless they've lost control of bladder or bowels....in which case we wash them to keep their dignity - they're still our patients)!!

LucyBMummy · 04/07/2023 22:24

titchy · 04/07/2023 21:46

Hearts a muscle so you can get a sarcoma which is cancer or a metastasis to the heart too.

Fair enough, but heart cells don't regenerate so there wouldn't be primary solid tumours would there?

You can get both primary and metastatic tumours of the heart

Alsogoingtogetslated · 04/07/2023 22:26

Spidey66 · 04/07/2023 21:30

When you die most nurses will open a window to allow your soul out

I doubt that's the reason. I think it's more likely to prevent any smell.

It’s is absolutely the reason- to let your soul out that is. Done it many many times and was taught this very early on on the wards.

VaccineSticker · 04/07/2023 22:27

This reply has been deleted

This message has been withdrawn at the poster's request

How is this remotely medically related?

Lollygaggle · 04/07/2023 22:27

CaptainSmarnacles · 04/07/2023 22:06

My Dentist did kneel on the arm of the chair and pull with both hands while extracting a rather stubborn tooth!

Show quote history

Your dentist must have been freakishly tall, freakishly flexible with freakishly large dental forceps and a very unusual extraction technique. Unfortunately when we are in pain and stressed the memory can play very many tricks on us.

Dental chairs cannot be lowered sufficiently that a dentist can kneel on them . Dental chair arms are not robust enough to kneel on or wide enough to kneel on.

You do not pull a tooth out , you push and wriggle so kneeling would only make taking the tooth out even more difficult.

The handles on tooth forceps are only big enough to get one hand on and mechanically you just want to push with one hand anyway.

This video explains and demonstrates it well, warning no teeth are taken out the opening sequence is a mock up but if dentistry causes you anxiety you might want to avoid watching

Knee on the Chest

Myth-busting: Dentists Don't Put Their Knee on Your ChestFor more information, see here: http://www.smilesbypayet.com/2013/02/dental-myth-knee-chest-pull-tee...

https://youtu.be/QNKyC30Dy1g

Tiredmum100 · 04/07/2023 22:29

Spidey66 · 04/07/2023 21:30

When you die most nurses will open a window to allow your soul out

I doubt that's the reason. I think it's more likely to prevent any smell.

No, its definitely to let the soul out so they they don't get trapped. It was the first thing I learnt a student nurse.

Destiny123 · 04/07/2023 22:29

Kelpi · 04/07/2023 22:15

Hang on a minute... So someone can be alive but brainstem dead, and they get taken to surgery and just... Carved up? In what order? Does that kind of make the person who takes out the organs feel like a murderer?! After all, the donor goes into surgery with a beating heart and comes out without a heart at all.

Show quote history

Legally someone who is brain stem dead is...dead so by definition we are bringing a dead body to theatre and the organs taken. The heart is rarely ever taken as its normally in too poor a condition due to age/events leading to brain death. Icu certifies them dead and we bring them to theatre for retrieval. Most of us run a little bit of anaesthetic as it makes us feel psychologically better but they are dead so no need.

If you didn't have them on a ventilator breathing for them then their heart and lungs would stop naturally shortly afterwards, which is what occurs in those not suitable or family don't wish for organ donation once we remove the breathing tube

Kiwiandstrawberries · 04/07/2023 22:31

HollyFern1110 · 04/07/2023 21:34

Recently deceased bodies don't smell any worse than they did just before they died.

I've carried out last offices for many patients over the years. We were definitely opening the window to let the soul out. Superstition I suppose.

Show quote history

Have been a nurse for 35 years and have never opened a window for that reason,in fact have never heard of this superstition!
Undertakers actually request that windows are not opened because of the risk of flies ,especially in warm weather .

Plentiful · 04/07/2023 22:33

Tiredmum100 · 04/07/2023 22:29

No, its definitely to let the soul out so they they don't get trapped. It was the first thing I learnt a student nurse.

Show quote history

Look, I get that some people, including nurses, are superstitious, but you weren’t ‘taught’ that as some kind of clinical necessity — it’s just a superstition.

vipersnest1 · 04/07/2023 22:34

My DSis opened the window when my DM died. DSis is a nurse. I didn't question her as I understood what she was doing.
Incidentally, my DM always believed that my DDad revisited her as a robin. I saw one in the hospital grounds the day before my DM died - it followed me until I went back inside.

Kiwiandstrawberries · 04/07/2023 22:36

StiggyZardust · 04/07/2023 22:04

I've been a nurse for 40 years. I've never seen anyone open a window when a person dies.

Same …have never heard of this !

Fatat40 · 04/07/2023 22:36

titchy · 04/07/2023 21:39

You can't get heart cancer.

Yes you can.

mrsmacmc · 04/07/2023 22:39

Always open the window when someone passes to let their soul out - one of the first things I was taught when doing the last offices ❤️ 🕯️

CaptainSmarnacles · 04/07/2023 22:41

Lollygaggle · 04/07/2023 22:27

Your dentist must have been freakishly tall, freakishly flexible with freakishly large dental forceps and a very unusual extraction technique. Unfortunately when we are in pain and stressed the memory can play very many tricks on us.

Dental chairs cannot be lowered sufficiently that a dentist can kneel on them . Dental chair arms are not robust enough to kneel on or wide enough to kneel on.

You do not pull a tooth out , you push and wriggle so kneeling would only make taking the tooth out even more difficult.

The handles on tooth forceps are only big enough to get one hand on and mechanically you just want to push with one hand anyway.

This video explains and demonstrates it well, warning no teeth are taken out the opening sequence is a mock up but if dentistry causes you anxiety you might want to avoid watching

Show quote history

Are you a Dentist by any chance?😂He was a big guy and I was only 14 and watching horror struck through half closed, watery eyes so recollections may vary as they say!

SeaToSki · 04/07/2023 22:42

The Islets of Langerhans are not small islands in the Baltic Sea (or any other ocean!). They are areas of cells in the pancreas that produce hormones, one of which is insulin

Toddlerteaplease · 04/07/2023 22:43

@Spidey66 no, that really is the reason! Though fortunately I've never had to go it yet in my 20 year career!

Fatat40 · 04/07/2023 22:43

Death can be certified as by brain stem death (DBD) or cardiac death (DCD)

The "best" type of deceased organ donors are DBD - those who are brain stem dead but who's heart / lungs are kept going via a life support machine. This keeps the donor organs (kidneys, liver etc) in the best condition as they are receiving oxygenated blood for as long as possible before retrieval surgery.
Outcomes for the recipients are better.

jmh740 · 04/07/2023 22:43

bobblyjob · 04/07/2023 21:53

On 99% of circumstances yes. This is basically for people ventilated in ICU who have had a catastrophic brain event that has led to brain death. Some will go on to organ donation. They are as well looked after (if not better!) than anyone else in the places if have worked until the family can have their time and the ventilator is switched off . It must be very hard for families

Show quote history

The way my mum was looked after was amazing, she went out to do some gardening had a catastrophic brain bleed and was in icu for 48 hours before the donor team took her away, her heart was still beating although she had no brain function. It was very very hard to sit holding her warm hand but know that she had gone,
I didn't know that only 1% of people can actually donate their organs you basically have to die in icu.