Post by papaof2 on Apr 16, 2018 15:10:37 GMT -6
While thinking about my upcoming eye surgery, I was considering the number of things that could go wrong. In addition to a truck taking out the power at the surgery center (wouldn't be the first time a vehicular accident put an area in the dark) what happens if the Eye Bank receives some tissue that is contaminated with something they don't (or can't) test for?
Would only the original contaminated tissue be a problem or could the tools used in their evaluation and storage processes become contaminated and thus contaminate all subsequent tissue that was processed?
What kind of contaminant might be involved? Cornea surgery is "bloodless" surgery as the cornea has no blood supply so the contaminant would need some other means of harming the patient receiving the transplant (other than just causing the transplant to fail).
In fiction, numerous methods have been used to harm people during the surgical process. For example, medication given during an office visit that quickly produced appendicitis symptoms so a person was scheduled for immediate surgery in the OR where the oxygen line has a remotely operated valve that can connect it to a cylinder of carbon monoxide and it only happened to young, healthy adults because they were prime candidates for organ harvesting (in "Coma").
What other things could be SHTF for someone undergoing surgery? I touched on medication mixups in "Just Another Voicemail". We've all at least heard about "wrong side" surgeries and I had to correct the paperwork from the eye surgeon's office for the upcoming surgery because it had the wrong eye on it (got a lot of "OMG!" response when I told them about it). At least I'll be conscious and my wife will be with me when they start the drops for dilation so we'll have multiple opportunities to ensure they're working on the correct eye (never use "right" when you mean "correct" if a direction or body side is involved). I've debated using a Sharpie to put "Surgery Here" on my forehead above the correct eye and "Done last year" above the other eye ;-)
This needs more research (think reading) than I'll be doing for a while so someone take the idea and run with it.
Do you know where "Take <something> and run with it" came from?
Would only the original contaminated tissue be a problem or could the tools used in their evaluation and storage processes become contaminated and thus contaminate all subsequent tissue that was processed?
What kind of contaminant might be involved? Cornea surgery is "bloodless" surgery as the cornea has no blood supply so the contaminant would need some other means of harming the patient receiving the transplant (other than just causing the transplant to fail).
In fiction, numerous methods have been used to harm people during the surgical process. For example, medication given during an office visit that quickly produced appendicitis symptoms so a person was scheduled for immediate surgery in the OR where the oxygen line has a remotely operated valve that can connect it to a cylinder of carbon monoxide and it only happened to young, healthy adults because they were prime candidates for organ harvesting (in "Coma").
What other things could be SHTF for someone undergoing surgery? I touched on medication mixups in "Just Another Voicemail". We've all at least heard about "wrong side" surgeries and I had to correct the paperwork from the eye surgeon's office for the upcoming surgery because it had the wrong eye on it (got a lot of "OMG!" response when I told them about it). At least I'll be conscious and my wife will be with me when they start the drops for dilation so we'll have multiple opportunities to ensure they're working on the correct eye (never use "right" when you mean "correct" if a direction or body side is involved). I've debated using a Sharpie to put "Surgery Here" on my forehead above the correct eye and "Done last year" above the other eye ;-)
This needs more research (think reading) than I'll be doing for a while so someone take the idea and run with it.
Do you know where "Take <something> and run with it" came from?
