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Penknife used for lunch, then for an operation. As you do.
I know it was one of you, own up!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62g7ed3qzxo
My daughter is a sister (NHS) in theatre. She said they've never ever ran out of scalpels, the op just wouldn't even happen if the necessary equipment wasn't there. And the scrub staff would just refuse to carry on in that situation.
Seems quite a few things to be questioned there, not just the surgeon.
What blade did he use??? everyone knows the little one is sharpest!
What penknife for....?
Pffft, a real man would use an Opinel, wipe it clean on his sleeve and then start cutting up apples and stilton for his lunch.
Getting in trouble for doing a bypass with a pocket knife? It's elf 'n' safety gawn Maaaad I tells you!
More importantly did he have tomatoes for lunch? If he did then at least any staining of the blade would have gone unnoticed.....
Worryingly this IS my local hospital.
Corkscrew for a prostate core
Tiny scissors for a vasectomy?
I have seen mole grips used in theatre to “persuade” difficult metalwork off *but* they’d been through the autoclave first and came off a sterile kit tray.
Penknife used for lunch, then for an operation. As you do.
Well you wouldn't want to do it the other way round, that would be disgusting.
What blade did he use
The one for removing a horse's hoof from a boyscout. it may turn out was exactly what the surgical procedure was.
I always used 10A scalpel blades, with the No 7 handle - easier to use, and I used the end of the handle for rubbing down Letraset.
I did once slice right down the side of my thumbnail with an Opinel, nice clean cut, very thin blade, didn’t even leave a scar once it healed - ran it under the tap in the hedge where I was camping, stuck it together with superglue and loo paper, didn’t have a first aid kit handy. Maybe that’s what the surgeon did…
*shrugs*
What @longdog said. I’ve seen operations not go ahead for much less vital reasons that nonetheless would have affected patient safety.
Lots of armchair commentary in the BBC story.
‘No scalpel available’ sounds like nonsense. All the places I worked had boxes of the things in all sorts of options in each of the theatre stock cupboards. Not to mention the many other departments in any hospital that have them available.
If this incident really happened then the whole theatre staff have some questions to answer.
This is the same sort of person who burns their initials into organs, just because they could.
Another one with a god complex turning up wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.
We'll probably find out over the next few weeks that the surgeon has been sacked/dismissed/moved on from half a dozen hospitals over the last few years for "unusual" behaviour.
Then we'll get the sob story about how the various employers should have done better and noticed the signs...
Yeah, that's madness, rather than practicality!!!
Sadly, Worthing and Brighton is my local trust... as a GP I get frustrated with their actions, let alone oddities like this now going on!
DrP
@CountZero
I always used 10A scalpel blades, with the No 7 handle – easier to use, and I used the end of the handle for rubbing down Letraset.
Letraset - way classier than branding or carving your name on the patient.......
Corkscrew for a prostate core
That's what they use, isn't it? Certainly felt like it.
If it was an Opinel then it MUST have been a STWer.
Using that as an excuse to share a photo of my favourite vending machine I found in France this summer - Opinels and cheese, take your pick:

Now that's a vending!
I need more details of location etc.
Now that’s a vending!
I need more details of location etc.
If I'd not bought myself a new Opinel the day before in Bourg I'd have been all over that!
Well, the Sheriff of Nottingham was going to remove Robin's heart with a spoon.