I understand people can make mistakes. That is how one learns. But I also feel that people should not mistakes about things that they know or at least must know very well. If they do and someone finds out that they did, one may sue them and win.
There was that case of a qualified gynecological fourth year resident who had put the Sims’ speculum into the poor woman’s rectum while that woman was undergoing a vaginal hysterectomy under spinal anesthesia. One moment it was in the vagina, and the next it was in the rectum. Perhaps a few moments passed after that until I noticed what she had done. I was flabbergasted when I found it there and stool on its surface. I got it removed, the parts cleaned and re-draped, and completed the operation with a prayer on my lips. The patient did well postoperatively. She did not develop fecal incontinence or surgical infection. Now it is a long time since, and one can say all is well that ends well. But is it really so? When a qualified gynecologist does such a thing, all cannot be well.
"Sir, perhaps it was an accident" said someone.
"Possibly" I agreed. "But avoidable!"
"Sir, was it the first time you saw such a thing?" someone asked me.
"No" I said "there was a fourth year resident, MD qualified, who had put a Sims’ speculum into a woman’s rectum to cut a suture that had inadvertently been passed through the rectum while suturing an episiotomy. She did that without anesthesia. She should have known Sims’ speculum was not the instrument meant for that purpose, that it would hurt a lot, and better instruments were available. Still she did what she did. That was criminal."
"It must be lack of knowledge of anatomy that resulted in that error" someone said.
Both of these doctors were gynecologists" I said. Anatomy of the woman’s genital tract is the most primary thing a gynecologist has to learn. Surely they must have known that. Besides, both of them were women. I suppose a doctor woman would know anatomy of a woman well?"
"Umm… yes, Sir"
"Did I tell you there are people who mistake the vagina for the urethra too?" I asked.
"No, Sir" said a Professor "how can be so?"
"Well, I don’t know how. But it has happened before. We had this fellow who was a gold medalist at M.B.B.S. examination, and was doing MD in obstetrics and gynecology with us. I asked him to catheterize a woman before an operation. He passed a catheter and reported that there was no urine draining through it. I had a feeling that something was not right. So I checked and found that he had passed it into the vagina. I pointed out his error to him. He made a face showing ‘so what?’ expression and went away. There have been others too who have erred similarly."
"I will tell you something that will beat all these stories" said a professor. "In the other civic hospital, they held the anterior lip of the external urinary meatus of a woman and dilated the urethra thinking they were dilating the woman’s cervix. Then they tried to evacuate uterine contents by entering the urinary bladder and perforated it, which was sutured by the urologists."
This story indeed beat my stories. I was suddenly happy I did not have such residents.
