May 27, 2006

The heart surgeon gives his own blood.

Eight hours into surgery, with the blood running out -- a rare blood type -- the surgeon gives his own blood.
"The patient was malnutritioned going into the operation," [Dr. Samuel Weinstein] said. "He was bleeding a lot, his blood wasn't clotting and supplies were running out.

"I sat down and donated a pint of blood, drank some water and ate a Pop-Tart, and went straight back to work.

"The blood went from me to him in a matter of minutes."
That would be stupid in a fiction story. It's so cool in real life.

7 comments:

michael farris said...

"The patient was malnutritioned"

?????!!??

I wonder how he pronunciates that word.

Other than that, yeah, cool story that you'd _never_ believe in a movie.

verification word: fufeeg, short lived dance craze in the early 60's Cleveland area.

Bissage said...

That is cool. Although I'll bet the blood was still pleasantly warm. Like milk straight from the cow. The highly intelligent, educated and skilled cow.

Charity surgery is cool. Very cool.

SippicanCottage said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
knox said...

michael farris said: "The patient was malnutritioned"
?????!!??

A lot of times people in technical fields use words differently on the job than laymen do. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a sort of shorthand way for saying "the patient was suffering from malnutrition." Much like they say someone "bled out" for "hemorrhaged to death."

reader_iam said...

Nice contrast, this story, to another one that we've been discussing.

Gordon Freece said...

Knoxgirl, one shorthand way to say that the patient is malnourished is to say "the patient is malnourished".

After the blood thing he's totally off the hook, though, as far as I'm concerned. This time.

"Starving" is shorter than either, and more in line with "bled out". Winston Churchill would say "starving".

Shawn Levasseur said...

It may be stupid in fiction if done poorly. But I remember something like this happening on M*A*S*H once. It seemed plausible in that episode.