Frustrated, she turned to the nurse: “Get another one, Jean! I can’t use this one now!”
As the nurse asked for another retractor to be unpacked, she felt a pang of guilt: was it her fault? Had she turned the screws too tight to try to get the retractor to stay in place? Had she wasted her departments precious resources by breaking the equipment, so they had to open another? No, she needed a good retractor; it was hard to see where to operate without it, and the case was challenging enough even WITH good retraction. Why were the stupid screws so hard to manage!
Now the patient was bleeding, and her visual access was getting even worse. Where was the blood coming from?! As soon as the scrub nurse handed her the replacement retractor, she tried to place it around the incision to get access. After quietly swearing to herself during the struggle to try to tighten the two screws enough to get the retractor to stay put, but not so much she would break it again, she managed to stop the bleeder. 35 minutes in and she hadn’t even located the mesh yet. This was going to be a tough one, and lunch was looking less and less likely today.
Later on with the patient in the recovery suite, she managed to grab an apple, and while typing up the notes from her morning surgeries, she saw an email notification pop up on the screen. “Single hand adjustments – a modern retractor”
She clicked on the link but then remembered: the hospital system would not allow external websites. She sighed and made a mental note to look it up when she came home. She just couldn’t stand operating with old and clunky equipment anymore – there were more important things to worry about and her patients deserved better. They had already gone through so much.
It was already dark outside when she unlocked the door at home and kicked off her shoes into the corner of the hallway. 10 Hours of operating and over 15000 steps later, she was finally home. Sinking into the sofa, she remembered her frustrations with the old equipment, and found the email she had seen earlier. The link opened quickly, and after looking through the video presentation of the new retractor, she had forwarded it to the theatre manager with a note saying “This is a better retractor –can we get this one instead? Modern design AND cheaper! Surely procurement will say yes (for once!)?”
Smiling to herself, she strolled into the kitchen. Perhaps she should start bringing lunch to work – in the future she might be able to actually eat it!
——THE END——
Is the outcome of YOUR surgery depending on the assistants or instruments you have?
Galaxy II is made with design protected cam locks to allow for one-handed adjustments and THEY DON’T BREAK, FALL OFF or SLIP.
