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cthorlast Saturday at 4:23 AM2 repliesview on HN

Surgeons mark where on the body they're operating. This didn't used to be a standard practice.

Asking "Did I mess up my left and right?" or "Is this the right patient?" feels like a stupid question to ask. I'd certainly rather they ask those questions before operating on me! But turns out it's very hard to get them to do that, so we do surgical site marking instead.


Replies

niuzetalast Saturday at 5:44 PM

I've been struggling to explain the principle behind the "stupid questions" and your example illustrates the point perfectly. Thank you. I'll be shamelessly stealing this point from now on :)

stevagelast Saturday at 12:13 PM

That's an excellent example.