We were in the brainstorming session for developing technical specifications for modular OT for the hospital. The three heads of departments to get the OT were present because they had to decide what they wanted and what they did not. The main coordination was assigned to another person who had already acquired a modular OT in the past, and presumably knew all about it. Sample specifications were adopted from that developed by another department which had almost acquired a modular OT. It had been a near miss.
“Why did they not get one?” someone asked. It was long story, and there was no time to explain it again. The explanation would have made no difference anyway.
“They were shown the carrot and then it was taken way” I said. They liked that explanation. We moved on with the brainstorming, which by now had started getting on nerves of most of the storm troopers, because there were a number of things which seemed to be have been copied from the product catalogue of one particular company including their trade names which meant little to our engineers and nothing to the doctors.
“I don’t agree with the statement ‘the door to the OT should be hermetically sealed” said the chief engineer.
“It has to be hermetically sealed, or bacteria will go in” said the chief coordinator specialist.
“Hermetic sealing is a special type of sealing, in which even moisture cannot pass through” explained the engineer patiently. “That cannot be applied to OT door.”
“You cannot have a gap in the door” said the chief specialist, quite irritated by the objection. He usually got this away when anyone dared say anything contrary to his opinion. He started shouting, banging the table with his hand, and throwing his considerable weight around. I was sitting next to him, and was the most affected of all present. I realized why everyone was sitting so far from him, leaving the chair next to him vacant, where I had sat unwittingly.
“I agree with the engineer” I said. “Sealing is a process in which something is closed in a way that it cannot be opened again, without breaking the seal. Hermetic sealing is a special type of sealing, in which even gases and moisture cannot pass through. If we seal the OT door in that manner, how can we get into the OT, get patients into it, and operate on them?”
That made sense to most of the people present. The chief specialist was known never to relent, but he did. Hermetic sealing was removed from the specifications. In the meantime I had realized it was best to distance myself from him. It would protect my ear drums, lessen my nerves’ fraying from his table banging, protect my trousers from his shoes every time he crossed his legs, and protect me from being pushed whenever he rolled his chair on castors in my direction. I moved from the chair next to his to one in the back row. He probably wanted to be a hermit, not only because he insisted on hermetic sealing when there was no call for any sealing at all, but also because he seemed to have qualities which made people to want to distance themselves from him.
