I’ve worked with a lot of good and a lot of bad surgeons, but even the bad ones aren’t usually dangerous bad, but like slow af, sub-optimal but passable outcomes, shit like that.
I’ve worked with ONE who was just absolute shit at his job… and his incompetence got at least one patient killed.
He got axed pretty quick… hopefully his license was revoked and he got charged with murder, but I never got any details of post-firing.
No, he never got any media attention that I’m aware of. My concern is that he’s just hopping from hospital to hospital - hiring on, fucking up, killing someone, getting fired, hiring on, fucking up, killing someone, etc.
Hospitals are pretty protective of their reputation and their doctors; and death is a thing that can happen in surgery so it be swept off as a “Oh well, patient signed off on the risks; and oh hey, this Dr said some mean things to our staff, so let’s fire him for that and hope we don’t make national headlines…”
Not that I’ve had a ton of surgeries, but I’ve had a couple, and anytime I go under, I’m desperately hoping that my surgeon wasn’t a C student and has the calmest of hands.
Most docs have some kind of internet presence nowadays, so definitely look them up. Also in the later preop stages when you talk to your OR nurse, look your nurse in the eye and just straight up ask “Would you be comfortable with this doctor operating on you?” They won’t be actually allowed to talk shit on their surgeon, but the second of panicked silence as they try to come up with some kind of non-answer without blatantly lying will tell you everything you need to know.
This might be like 30 mins before your surgery - you have the right to refuse up until you go unconscious. It’ll feel dirty, but those standards exist for a reason.
Curious how common the truly bad ones are. I’d assume quite uncommon between licensing, hospital hiring, chart data analysis at scale, etc., but…
Counting down the days to a relatively minor surgery I need. No real concerns, I’ve met the lead surgeon a few times, but plenty of unknown humans are part of the process too.
I’ve worked with a lot of good and a lot of bad surgeons, but even the bad ones aren’t usually dangerous bad, but like slow af, sub-optimal but passable outcomes, shit like that.
I’ve worked with ONE who was just absolute shit at his job… and his incompetence got at least one patient killed.
He got axed pretty quick… hopefully his license was revoked and he got charged with murder, but I never got any details of post-firing.
omg it wasn’t “Dr Death” aka Christopher Duntsch was it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Duntsch
No, he never got any media attention that I’m aware of. My concern is that he’s just hopping from hospital to hospital - hiring on, fucking up, killing someone, getting fired, hiring on, fucking up, killing someone, etc.
Hospitals are pretty protective of their reputation and their doctors; and death is a thing that can happen in surgery so it be swept off as a “Oh well, patient signed off on the risks; and oh hey, this Dr said some mean things to our staff, so let’s fire him for that and hope we don’t make national headlines…”
That’s exactly what happened with Dr Death and why he wasn’t caught for such a long time.
Oh, well shit. Dr Death was before this shit, but it sounds like basically Dr Death 2.0.
…kinda makes me wonder how common this is.
Not that I’ve had a ton of surgeries, but I’ve had a couple, and anytime I go under, I’m desperately hoping that my surgeon wasn’t a C student and has the calmest of hands.
Most docs have some kind of internet presence nowadays, so definitely look them up. Also in the later preop stages when you talk to your OR nurse, look your nurse in the eye and just straight up ask “Would you be comfortable with this doctor operating on you?” They won’t be actually allowed to talk shit on their surgeon, but the second of panicked silence as they try to come up with some kind of non-answer without blatantly lying will tell you everything you need to know.
This might be like 30 mins before your surgery - you have the right to refuse up until you go unconscious. It’ll feel dirty, but those standards exist for a reason.
That’s a good suggestion about talking to the nurse, thank you.
Curious how common the truly bad ones are. I’d assume quite uncommon between licensing, hospital hiring, chart data analysis at scale, etc., but…
Counting down the days to a relatively minor surgery I need. No real concerns, I’ve met the lead surgeon a few times, but plenty of unknown humans are part of the process too.