AWOL surgeons are leaving patients in the lurch

It may be the most dangerous risk you face during your next surgery — and there’s a good chance you’ll never be warned about it.

Imagine you or someone you love lying in an operating room. You’re unconscious, you’ve already been cut open, and your life is hanging in the balance.

And your surgeon is nowhere to be found.

Believe it or not, that’s exactly what’s happening at hospitals across the country right now, where surgeons are allowed to perform three or more operations at the same time.

It’s an open secret in the hospital community, but most patients and their families are never told. And one leading doctor is warning that the results have already been tragic.

Double troubleDr. Dennis Burke, a top knee and hip surgeon, was waging a one-man campaign to stop Massachusetts General Hospital from double- and triple-booking surgeons.

Right until he was fired for it.

As Dr. Burke points out, nurses and even scrub techs are required to sign in and out of surgery to make sure there’s enough coverage and that patients are safe.

But surgeons are allowed to disappear out of operating rooms like Houdini.

And if you want to see how badly that can go, just ask Bobby Jenks, a former pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.

When Jenks needed bone spurs removed from his back, he chose the very best — Dr. Kirkham Wood, head of MGH’s orthopedic spine service. But what Jenks didn’t know was that he would be sharing him that morning with another patient.

Dr. Wood was also doing another complex and risky spinal surgery in a nearby operating room — at the same time as Jenk’s procedure.

If a pitcher for the Red Sox can’t get a surgeon’s attention, what hope is there for the rest of us?

Jenks ended up with a botched surgery that he says is a career ender — and apparently he’s not the only one.

Tony Meng, a 41-year-old dad with two kids, woke up paralyzed after his operation, one in which he shared Dr. Wood with an elderly patient down the hall.

You’d think that would be enough to get MGH to start taking the problem of AWOL surgeons seriously. But it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon.

The hospital is now limiting surgeons to three simultaneous operations (thanks for nothing, right?) and Massachusetts will soon require surgeons to sign in and out of operating rooms.

Doesn’t exactly make you feel any safer, does it?

Of course, Dr. Wood doesn’t think that he did anything wrong and says that MGH is “being crucified for something that happens at hospitals across the globe.”

And, unfortunately, he’s right.

Hospitals everywhere are regularly booking surgeons for multiple operations. And while they claim it’s a cost saver — and helps them make a fortune — odds are you’ll never know anything about it.

And that’s dangerous because even if you don’t suffer from a life-threatening complication, studies have shown that your recovery time is directly linked to how long you spend in the OR under the knife.

Surgery isn’t something we always get to plan for. But when you do, make sure you find out whether your surgeon will be in the room with you from start to finish.

Because no matter how well known, highly paid, skilled or experienced a surgeon is, he’s still only human.

Sources:
“State acts on simultaneous surgeries” Jonathan Saltzman and Jenn Abelson, January 7, 2016, The Boston Globe, bostonglobe.com

“Clash in the name of care” Spotlight Team Report, The Boston Globe, bostonglobe.com