Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Australian Patient Operated On Using Mobile Phone Light

posted by martyb on Friday January 31 2020, @08:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the Paging-Dr-Grey dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

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.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Australian Patient Operated On Using Mobile Phone Light | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 19 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by LVDOVICVS on Friday January 31 2020, @08:33PM (8 children)

    by LVDOVICVS (6131) on Friday January 31 2020, @08:33PM (#951944)

    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?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   3  

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by ze on Friday January 31 2020, @08:39PM (3 children)

    by ze (8197) on Friday January 31 2020, @08:39PM (#951947)

    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)

      by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Friday January 31 2020, @09:19PM (#951965) Journal
      The backup generators took a couple of minutes to kick in. The operation was minor, removing a lesion from the scalp using a local anesthetic, and all that was left to do was a couple of stitches. No real problem, not like two patients who had been anesthetize and were woken up and rescheduled.
      --
      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)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @11:31PM (#952050)

        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

          by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Friday January 31 2020, @11:44PM (#952059) Journal
          Nobody almost died. Nobody was at risk of brain damage. The whole area has a history of problems with high variable voltage, and this probably caused a delay in the generator kicking in because you have to set it for a higher variance of line power before it cuts in. Don't want it kicking in multiple times a day because of a 5 second power outage.
          --
          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

    by ikanreed (3164) on Friday January 31 2020, @08:43PM (#951948) Journal

    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)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @09:15PM (#951964)

    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)

      by maxwell demon (1608) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 31 2020, @10:39PM (#952013) Journal

      lightning bugs

      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

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @07:42PM (#952445)

        No, that's how you make bug zappers...