Monday 16 June 2008

Things have come a long way


One of the patients on my list today was a young chap who had come in for a repair of his hernia. It was all pretty routine stuff, but what struck me about this guy is that he was seriously BUILT in that he was about 6’4” has huge muscles all over. I chatted to him for a bit in the anaesthetic room and it turns out that this guy is a boxer and was very disappointed to have to have surgery as he was hoping to turn pro at the end of the year.

I had a few reservations just because of his sheer bulk, but he actually turned out to be really easy to anaesthetise. He had huge veins and the fact that he doesn’t smoke or drink meant that I had very few problems with him on the table.

Once he was “under” I turned to the theatre nurse, Adam, and said, “Tell you what, I certainly wouldn’t fancy my chances in a fight against this guy, look at the size of him!”

To which Adam replied, “yeah, but remember that you’ve got the drugs, so you’ll always win!”

The drugs we use these days are pretty damn good in my opinion, but as Knowmore writes, this wasn’t always the case…



The kindly patient's left hand threw the Surgeon to the ground and his
right-hand the scrub nurse into the sink. He then determined to leave the
operating theatre by the simple process of running up the staircase with me
still attached round his neck, the mask clamped determindley to his face

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