The Hospital Hush

People never warn you about who the bad doctors are — not even the doctors. Take the infamous Hospital Hush.

This is a secret most hospital surgeons and OR nurses know, but which never reaches the patients, although it touches many female patients sooner or later without them never knowing.

It’s about what OB/GYNs have (not) done in the OR, about what they damaged but didn’t repair, about what they started but could not finish, about the flowers they receive but did not earn.

A couple of months ago, my girlfriend was called yet again and asked urgently to go to the OR “because something had gone wrong.” A duo of OB/GYNs had started surgery on a female patient, and for some obscure reason severely damaged the patient’s bladder. They did not know what to do. They had tried fixing it themselves for a while, but this left the site even more messy, and so they panicked and called a urologist.

    “These people simply start surgery that they have never done before and without the proper general surgical experience, and start cutting, and cutting, and then something is savaged and the patients starts bleeding. Right before a real surgeon is called — urgently.”

It happens time and again in many hospitals around the world.

Dilation and curettage in which a uterus ended up with a hole the size of a peach ? CHECK. A hysterectomy in which a bladder was ruptured beyond repair ? CHECK. Cesarian section in which the baby almost died by the OB/GYN’s scalpel ? CHECK.

    “If I ever need a hysterectomy, I would demand a general surgeon or a urologist, but NEVER EVER would I allow an OB/GYN to do it.”

(Quoting my girlfriend.)

In the end though, when your ruptured bladder or uterus is fixed by another doctor, your OB/GYN won’t tell you what he did, and how they solved it. And he will get your flowers, and the many thanks for all the good care.

This, ladies and gentle men, is the Hospital Hush.

SOURCES: Diseases of the kidneys, ureters and bladder, with special reference to the diseases of women (1922), H. A. Kelly, M. Brödel and C. F. Burnam. 

Source: Some or all of the content was generated using an AI language model and Quora.com