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shy
Crypt Keeper
 
Australia
1921 Posts |
 Posted - 24 March 2004 : 11:06:30 AM
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LONDON (Reuters) - Surgeons are endangering patients by using paperclips to close wounds and tongue depressors as splints for babies, a government agency has said.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said on Tuesday it had uncovered an increasing trend for doctors to use medical devices in ways they were not meant to be used, and also "adapt non-medical products for clinical purposes".
Such misuse can put patients' health at serious risk, it said.
"For example, use of tongue depressors in a neonatal intensive care unit as limb splints led to two deaths and one amputation because of fungal infection," the agency said.
Surgeons were closing wounds with paperclips and urinary catheters. Others were using wooden clothes pegs to clip devices that measure the pulse on to patients' earlobes, or using fake fingernails to fix cuts on the nail bed.
"The use of a device in these circumstances exposes users and patient to unknown and therefore unacceptable risks and may have legal and ethical implications," it said.
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CAT
Ghost
 
Canada
243 Posts |
Posted - 24 March 2004 : 11:37:30 PM
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Um..what hospital is this? I would rather do it myself than have tongue depressors in me. |
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mistresskitty
Ghost
Canada
245 Posts |
Posted - 04 April 2004 : 1:44:22 PM
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paperclips?! I HATE PAPERCLIPS!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Buckshot
Man Pussy
Australia
327 Posts |
Posted - 18 April 2004 : 11:47:28 AM
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Sounds like these "Doctors" have been watching a lethal combination of too many episodes of Magyver and Do It Yourself shows.
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bloodsfire
Ghost
USA
158 Posts |
Posted - 21 July 2004 : 12:48:12 PM
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Most folks here in the southern US will swear on thier mother that all you need to get you by in any situation is a sharp knife, a wire coathanger, and duct tape. Although this is not entirely true, these simple items can indeed get you out of or through many scrapes. Everything from lock picking to auto repair and first aid can be tended to with the most basic of tools. I'm sure that non-sterile or inapropriate tools in a medical facility can indeed cause more harm than good. Even the right implements can fall into the harmful category in incompetent hands. A friend of mine dislocated a knee-cap, and after some pain killers and a 3 hour emergency room trip, he emerged dazed, with the brace on the wrong fucking leg. Bad medicine. I received staples in my arm recently, and the doctor decided to use me as a lab rat, allowing nurses in training to take thier first shot at stapling flesh back together. The work was poorly done, and the experience lead me to opt for removing the staples myself rather than venture back into the 'life saving' hospital.
Basic household items can save lives, super glue can do wonders when sutures are not available...but only as a temporary fix. On the other hand, the most sterile of implements can kill you when they rest in incompetent or uncaring hands....
6 of one, half dozen of another.
Here in the US it is often said that it is better to bleed to death , than trust your life to an Emergency Room. Unfortunatley, almost all hospitals can be risky when you have no medical insurance. Farm animals get better medical attention. Land of the free, home of the crazed!
God bless us every one....
"Say hello, to the shrinking in your head, you can't see it but you know it's there, so don't neglect it." |
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Surgeons close wounds with paperclips 
