02-09-2010, 09:01 PM
As someone who actually performs surgery, let me present this in a way that might be easier to understand:
Peyton Manning is one of the best quarterbacks in football history. He is consistently able to throw a pass 5 to 15 yards with extreme accuracy. He does this day in and day out in different weather and environmental conditions. Yet even in his practiced hands, he can make a bad pass that gets picked off and returned 74 yards for a touchdown. He's human.
Surgeons are humans too. A general surgeon may do hundreds, thousands of gall bladder surgeries and may do them in patients who have anatomic variations that sometimes make the surgeries difficult. Even in the most practiced hands, bowel can get injured. It's rare, but it happens.
Now, dying from a nicked bowel -- there's all sorts of potential reasons this can happen. Maybe someone wasn't vigilant for a post operative infection. Maybe Murtha wasn't the healthiest person and succumbed more easily to infection than the average 77 year old. This tragic event happening doesn't necessarily mean there was a negligent surgeon involved.
Bink.
Peyton Manning is one of the best quarterbacks in football history. He is consistently able to throw a pass 5 to 15 yards with extreme accuracy. He does this day in and day out in different weather and environmental conditions. Yet even in his practiced hands, he can make a bad pass that gets picked off and returned 74 yards for a touchdown. He's human.
Surgeons are humans too. A general surgeon may do hundreds, thousands of gall bladder surgeries and may do them in patients who have anatomic variations that sometimes make the surgeries difficult. Even in the most practiced hands, bowel can get injured. It's rare, but it happens.
Now, dying from a nicked bowel -- there's all sorts of potential reasons this can happen. Maybe someone wasn't vigilant for a post operative infection. Maybe Murtha wasn't the healthiest person and succumbed more easily to infection than the average 77 year old. This tragic event happening doesn't necessarily mean there was a negligent surgeon involved.
Bink.