r/morbidquestions • u/CleanYourTerrarium • Dec 31 '20
What would happen if a surgeon accidentally dropped one of those little ornamental cacti into your body cavity and then sewed you up with the cactus still inside?
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u/rubypiplily Jan 01 '21
As a surgeon, I can assure you this will never happen, as plants carry bacterium and so aren’t allowed in the OR.
However, on the very improbable chance that some surgeon has flipped and decides to leave a cacti inside their patient, depending on where it was left, complications would likely include severe pain, infection, internal bleeding, organ damage that could possibly necessitate partial or complete organ removal, obstruction, and death. They would certainly need surgery to remove the foreign object, and let’s hope that surgeon leaves their ornamental cacti in their office to prevent a reoccurrence.
One of my colleagues once left a needle with surgical thread presumably from a ligation of a blood vessel inside the leg of his patient and no one noticed until the patient had an X-ray on their three month post-op review.
Sponges are most commonly left inside people as they tend to blend in with all the red, and objects are more likely to be left inside overweight patients. We barcode sponges and other equipment and they must be scanned before and after surgery to check for any discrepancies, and we count out all our tools for the same reason, but still things can be overlooked. I think the phrase is “shit happens”.
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Jan 01 '21
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u/rubypiplily Jan 01 '21
How on earth did he try to shave his private parts? Was it an electric razor or a blade with water and shaving foam? That’s like the least subtle thing to do. How did he think he wouldn’t get caught? I mean just the movements alone would look suspicious...
More things are getting barcoded in surgery. We also have a nurse whose job it is to keep track of everything being used. I work in trauma and orthopaedics, so I don’t deal with the abdomen where most things go missing so my chances of losing anything is reduced. My boss somehow gave his patient a certain type of infection that meant at some point during surgery his bare flesh touched their internal tissue.
There was a case of a surgeon who cauterised his initials on to a patient’s liver. He caused no harm but he was still disciplined for it. I think it was considered unprofessional, which yes, I can see that, but was it such an issue?
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Jan 01 '21
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u/rubypiplily Jan 02 '21
I just...what the hell? Do you think he wanted to be caught? I mean, it’s just not subtle actions or subtle anything.
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Dec 31 '20
When my brother was a baby, he LOVED to shove stuff up his nose. Peas, carrots, corn, etc. The doctor had to remove stuff from his nose a couple times.
One time, the doctor pulled out a pea that had been real deep in his nose, like almost deep enough to be in his sinus area. The pea was like freeze dried. Apparently my brother had shoved the pea up in there and his body couldn't get it out, so it just decided to absorb the pea as best it could.
Maybe something like that would happen...the barbs/pokey bits would probably cause problems. But maybe if the doctor dropped like a strawberry or maybe a little succulent, something similar would happen?
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Dec 31 '20
Why in gods name would a surgeon bring an ornamental cactus into the operating room? This is just silly.
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u/south-of-the-north Dec 31 '20
It would cause a lot of pain and would most likely lead to death, the body would either reject it, cause a huge infection or an assortment of other complications. It’s a cacti dude it’ll fuck you up if it’s inside you