A man's missing dentures were found stuck in his throat 8 days after surgery
“Stay on the safe side,” an expert said. “Inform your physician of what’s going on in your mouth.”
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Here’s why it’s best to remove false teeth before surgery: You just might swallow them.
A medical journal is reporting the case of a 72-year-old British man whose partial dentures apparently got stuck in his throat during surgery and weren’t discovered for eight days.
Tags
Who is online
74 visitors
Medical "science" does it again. Well done. I wonder what they charged him for the x-ray and the drugs.
I had one patient whose teeth were broken during entubation for surgery. The hospital paid for me to make her a denture. Her teeth were so rotten that it wasn't really the anesthesiologist's fault, IMO, but they accepted responsibility.
Every time I've had surgery or been put under anesthesia I'm always asked if I have dentures or a partial. Every. Time.
Seems this man's nurses didn't ask the important question
The anesthesiologist has always asked me, even if the nurse already had.
I can never remember the anesthiologist, only the nurses
Da Fuq? Every time I had surgery I had to remove my ear ring, (except the last time, my surgeon allowed me to tape it down, but after 9 surgeries, we got to be friends)... But they didn't bother to take this guys teeth out? Holy crap, that's some next level incompetence right there.
Yeah, the anesthesiologist should have seen this. A cursory inspection of the mouth would have been prevented this.
Somehow, I figured you'd be the first to stop by this article
Anything for you Sunshine.
And...correct. When doing a medical history, this should have come up, which would make it into the nurses notes, which would alert the anesthesiologist and the rest of the surgical staff.
Any time I've been under general anesthesia, the anesthesiologist has both asked if I had any dentures, loose teeth. or piercings, and looked in my mouth to verify. It only takes a few seconds.
Exactly, also, "any broken teeth", which I am assuming is to minimize liability. But yes, it does only take a few seconds.
I used to be a nurse and the pre op check list includes removal of false teeth and jewelry. Someone in this case really f'd up.
Scary level of medical incompetence.
But fortunately, (at least in the US), it's on the decline. Now there is a count of everything used during a surgery, every single item, to make sure items aren't left in the patient. It has drastically decreased medical mistakes, but, no system is perfect.
I notice there's a lot of blame being placed on the hospital and certainly they have their share but the patient himself bears some responsibility himself (unless of course he was brought to the hospital already unconscious).
TBH, there is no way that this denture wasn't easily visible to the anesthesiologist at intubation. It's an upper partial made mostly of metal. The doctor has a clear view of the upper palate.
Agreed