On the Special Bed

Anesthetist emphasizes on G.O.D., an acronym for "G"ood "O"xygen "D"elivery. Not sure if that applies to all the anesthetist out there, but it certainly does with this professor that I tagged while I was in the operation theater.

So there was this story that she told me while we were in the recovery ward, monitoring this lady who just had a biopsy done on a lump in her breast. It was a very short surgery, there wasn't much anesthesia given, just some pain killer. But having the patient unconscious, it was up to the anesthetist to maintain the airway and make sure that the patient wasn't deprived off oxygen to the lungs.

We were talking about my 5 attempts to get the right methods of jaw thrusting when our attention shifted to another case which happened not long ago. Apparently, the bed next to the bay that we were at, were a very special bay, according to her.

The previous patient who was placed in that bay passed away due to malfunctioned oxygen monitoring device. Somehow it stopped beeping and the nurses were unaware of it, and when they came back to check back on him half an hour later, he was gone.

Apparently, the face mask shifted, he did not get enough oxygen. Plus, since he was still having some of the effects of anesthesia, he was in semi-conscious state. It was too bad too, that he had no one with him at that time owing to the fact that he was a foreign laborer.

Sad thing.

Young Indonesian came all the way across the straits to work, only to find that he had liver cancer. Too bad he passed away in a foreign land and not in his home.