Murphy's law has it that bad things will happen at the worst possible time. What could be worse than losing power at a hospital with patients on the tables? One Australian hospital now knows the answer after power was cut to the hospital leaving doctors to complete a surgery using a mobile phone for light. Medical staff had completed the minor surgery and were starting to put stitches in when the lights went out, just before 2:00pm. It goes to show what ingenuity can bring when a need calls for it.
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Australian Patient Operated On Using Mobile Phone Light
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by LVDOVICVS on Friday January 31 2020, @08:33PM (8 children)
Considering its importance I would have guessed that every operating room would have a backup system for, at a minimum, lights; and maybe a few other machines as well. Is preparation for unexpected events not something that's given any consideration in this field?
(Score: 2, Informative) by ze on Friday January 31 2020, @08:39PM (3 children)
I could've sworn it was standard for hospitals to have backup generators in general...
(Score: 3, Informative) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @09:19PM (2 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @11:31PM (1 child)
So you are saying they were negligent in maintaining the generator and are using this to distract people from the fact people in ICU almost died, and likely have brain damage?
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @11:44PM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday January 31 2020, @08:43PM
Not just backup, but straight up UPS seems like the bare minimum.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @09:15PM (2 children)
Back in my day, we kept a jar of fireflies (lightning bugs) around, just in case...
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday January 31 2020, @10:39PM (1 child)
Are those what you get if you crossbreed a bug with an electric eel? :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @07:42PM
No, that's how you make bug zappers...
(Score: 3, Informative) by jon3k on Friday January 31 2020, @08:46PM
My stairwell can keep the lights on during a power outage but not an operating room? Here's a little "ingenuity" for you, it's called a battery.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @08:49PM (4 children)
Doctor must have left their phone in the patient when they closed up, and "smartphone" wasn't on the checklist for things to make sure weren't left in the patient.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by LVDOVICVS on Friday January 31 2020, @09:32PM (3 children)
I wonder if their phones are on the list of things to sterilize before entering the room with them?
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @09:51PM (2 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @10:55PM (1 child)
Weren't you singing it's praises the other day? A musl/Linux phone wouldn't have been a distraction because it doesn't have no stinkin' apps of which millennial surgeons seem so addicted.
Call someone who cares! Oh, that's right you can because your silicon valley spyware actually makes calls.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday January 31 2020, @11:15PM
Oh boy is your memory fscked up. I said it was a total piece of shit, no audio and no dialed and no texting capability. I made it very clear it's currently an overpriced crippled tablet - and you can buy tablets with bigger displays and SOUND for less than half the price that run Linux.
Why not take one of those and add a cellular phone modem instead? The chip can't cost $80 a piece.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @10:12PM
Did they even think to patent this? Probably not, doctors are too dumb.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Friday January 31 2020, @11:22PM (1 child)
"Australian Patient Operated On Using Mobile Phone Light"
Yay! A patients life was saved by almighty mobile phones! (no it wasn't but that is all many idiots looking at this clickbait will see). All praise mobile phones and their ultra-bright LED backlights! (Stare at them until your eyes melt) Doesn't that just make you want to run out and buy one or feel good about the one you have? You might just save someones life with your glorious mobile phone! From now on, cell phones will be used in place of proper emergency lighting and generators! They are just that awesomely useful!
*Facepalm*.
"It goes to show what ingenuity can bring when a need calls for it."
No, it is called making do with what you have during a major fuckup. If someone there had a pocket flashlight on their keychain and used that instead, would this even be a story? No. Why? Because cell phones!
(Score: 1, Troll) by barbara hudson on Saturday February 01 2020, @12:08AM
To rewrite the Story - patient being treated for a scalp lesion in an examination room, doctor cut out the lesion, lights went out when he was putting stitches in, nurse came in and used her phone light, other nurses came in with flashlights, patient got stitches, lights came back on. Turns out examination rooms have lower priority for generator power, but they also get generator power when the low priority generator kicks in. OMG examination rooms in hospitals aren't top priority! Make clickbait story. Get cursed at for letting this shit through.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @12:51AM
the sentence part:
"the hospital's electricity did not stabilise for another 15 minutes" really shows how brain washed some people are about electricity.
unless the hospital itself had a SOURCE of generation for electricity (which would make the this news report a non-starter) which was malfunctioning, the hospital didn't have electricity.
so to not continuing to make it seem that consumers (that includes hospitals) are entitled to electricity by some devine law the sentence, rephrased would be more accurate:
" the electricity supply to the hospital did not stabilise for another 15 min".
it is misunderstandings like this in news reports that leads to a wrong understanding of electricity in the population and i am sure plays into the hands of public utilities that want to keep people from really becoming sources of electrcity (*hint*hint* look up, past the smog on a sunny day).