Oh Shit, Surgery

My mom just retired as an OBGYN, and she told me about a time early on in her career when, while not a real medical mistake, she still almost ruined the operation.

She was performing a c-section I think, and she dropped her scalpel on the floor. Before she could think, she blurted out “oh shit,” as a reaction. The mother, thinking something was wrong with the baby, started panicking. It took a team of nurses, the husband, and the mother of the patient to calm her down.

This was very early in her career, and she practiced for another 25 years without major incident.

I guess on the first day of clinical skills, they tell them to replace “oh shit” in their vocabulary with “that’s better,” or “there we go.” So if they drop a scalpel, they say “there we go.”

I can only imagine the peace of mind the parent would feel when they drop their newborn baby on the floor and state “that’s better.”