Vol. IX, No. 6Archive > June, 2008
Medical Malpractice
Sometimes It's OK to Say "I'm Sorry"
Catherine Griswold, RN, MSN CLNC
At the end of a gallbladder procedure in a Massachusetts hospital, the surgeon wiped the female patient's abdomen with an alcohol solution to remove the sticky prep that had been applied before surgery. Suddenly he remembered that he'd promised, as a favor to the patient, to remove a mole on her belly. But the alcohol he had just applied hadn't yet evaporated. The hot cautery instrument ignited a fire of blue flames "similar to a flambé" on the patient's skin, according to a report in the Boston Globe in 2007. The drapes also caught fire and had to be pulled away. By the time the surgeon and the OR team members had patted out the fire, the patient had suffered first- and second-degree burns.
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