What's the Difference Between an Auto Mechanic and a Medical Surgeon?

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What's the Difference Between an Auto Mechanic and a
Medical Surgeon?

By Stephen Bucaro

Doctors in West Virginia refused to treat patients because
of rising medical malpractice insurance premiums. A
majority of doctors in most other states are cutting back
on patient care because of rising malpractice insurance
premiums. I have a riddle for those doctors: What's the
difference between an auto mechanic and a medical surgeon?
Answer: An auto mechanic doesn't leave his tools inside
the object he worked on!

A study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and
Harvard School of Public Health found that surgeons ignore
the standard practice of counting the surgical tools before
and after an operation, resulting in tools being left
inside the bodies of 1,500 people each year. The actual
number of people with surgical tools left inside their
bodies is much higher because hospitals are not required to
report mistakes.

Surgeons leave clamps, electrodes, sponges and other
surgical tools inside the bodies of people. In several
cases, 11 inch metal retractors where left inside people.
Sometimes the people didn't know that a surgical tool had
been left inside their body. Many of the tools where found
in later surgeries.

The surgical tools left inside people often cause
obstructions, tissue damage, or cause infections. The
individuals are then required to endure additional surgery
to remove the surgical tools. Claiming "reasons of privacy",
researchers withheld information about people that died
from complications caused by surgical tools left inside
their bodies.

Maybe medical malpractice insurance premiums wouldn't be so
high if the doctors stayed awake and alert during surgery,
or if they at least followed the standard medical practice
of counting the surgical tools before and after an
operation. I think the doctors are correct to refuse to
treat patients. If they don't treat any patients, they can't
leave their surgical tools inside peoples bodies!
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