Should patients receive their gallstones?

nursemichelle · Apr 15, 2004

:uhoh21: ewwwwwww!

psychomachia · Apr 15, 2004

Should patients be given their gallstones, kidney stones, or other bits removed during surgery?

I think it is totally disgusting myself. I mean, who knows what the patient/relatives/friends will do with it? And why would they want it in the first place? But the doctors will insist on it beig done:uhoh3:

from http://www.s-t.com/daily/02-98/02-02-98/zzzwnppl.htm

Larry Hagman has a jewel of a gallstone.

After having several gallstones removed during his liver transplant in 1995, Hagman sent them to New York artist Barton Benes who made one into a ring.

"He has a great sense of humor," Benes says in the Feb. 7-13 TV Guide.

The artist who collects inane celebrity objects also has a surgical staple from Hagman's transplant ant the keys to his dressing room from "Dallas."

Benes also has a throat lozenge that President Clinton threw out in an ashtray before a television interview, a pencil chewed by Geraldo Rivera and a lock of Mary Martin's hair.

2ndCareerRN · Apr 16, 2004

Why not, it is theirs isn't it? If not needed for patho then the patient should have the right to request their parts back. If needed for patho, there should be a way to give the patient the parts not destroyed during patho back to them.

This is beyond the cultural aspect, in which some cultures want their bits and pieces back.

In some cultures, body integrity on burial or cremation is very important. That is just one of the reasons all nursing programs now teach at least one course on trans-cultural nursing. You have to understand the culture off the people you deal with.

bob

allnurses Guide · Apr 16, 2004

Shall we revisit the subject of what some folks do with their placentas?

:rotfl:

steph

sharann, BSN, RN · Apr 16, 2004

Shall we revisit the subject of what some folks do with their placentas?
:rotfl:
steph

Lets not and say we did Stevie!!! :rotfl:

I say let 'em have their parts and just don't tell me where they go!(Like saving your kids lost baby teeth. Yucky but sentimental. To each their own I guess)

allnurses Guide · Apr 16, 2004

I've known some parents who keep the umbilical stub when it dries and falls off. They tape it in their baby book.

steph

MsHB · Apr 16, 2004

Why not, it is theirs isn't it? If not needed for patho then the patient should have the right to request their parts back. If needed for patho, there should be a way to give the patient the parts not destroyed during patho back to them.
This is beyond the cultural aspect, in which some cultures want their bits and pieces back.
In some cultures, body integrity on burial or cremation is very important. That is just one of the reasons all nursing programs now teach at least one course on trans-cultural nursing. You have to understand the culture off the people you deal with.
bob

So now I have to be culturally aware about gallstones? :uhoh3:

carcha · Apr 16, 2004

I feel especially working in the UK, with our c.j.d. experience that tissue should not be given to the patient. Its just a fad, and lets face it would we give patients their bowel resection, their liver, pancreas. Of course not so lets ban the "souvenir hunters". Its an unacceptable practice.

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Apr 16, 2004

I betcha that if someone asked for their bowel or pancreas that the docs would give it to them. Personally, if they want it I say let them have it, it isn't my business what they do with their body parts in the privacy of their own home.

2ndCareerRN · Apr 16, 2004

So now I have to be culturally aware about gallstones?

No, you have to be culturally aware about your patient's beliefs. Many Native American patients want their parts back so they can be buried on native land. A very simple request, and one that should be honored, IMO.

bob

carcha · Apr 17, 2004

2ndCareerRN, the issue of cultural beliefs is not what we are talking about. Burying body parts is a lot different then putting them in your handbag and boring your friends to death with them at a birthday party. It has been standard practice here for years to allow patients to take their amputated limbs and have a funeral for it, or for a mother who has suffered a miscarriage even in the early stages, or for the tissue from an abortion to be buried with a full service. Burying body parts is not unique to Native Americans by any means. However you must agree that the big difference is the way in which the tissue is handled, transported and dealt with. The souvenir hunters show a lack of respect and as I have stated before with the risk of CJD, can prove a health hazard. Cultural burial, however is in my experience, dealt with professionally, and held with respect.