sjs1957

I am all for doing what's necessary to make my surgery as safe and successful as possible and I will talk to the surgeon well before surgery but what I am trying to find out is will they honor the agreed to restrictions on the consent agreement after I'm under or just humor me while I am awake? I have read many times it's after you're unconscious that all the unnecessary people enter the OR. I know a coworker who recently had CABG at my local hospital which is also a teaching hospital and I have been asking her about her experience. When she signed the "standard" consent form allowing visitors, students, etc., she really had no idea how far that would go. She told me when she was wheeled into surgery that the operating room was huge and said there were about 25 people in there already. From what I have learned this operation should take about eight people max. Is that a fair estimate? At 25 people it seems way over the top. She should have charged admission.

I have a question for nurses who work in operating rooms. I may be looking at cardio-thoracic surgery in my near future and have read about all that goes on while the patient is unconscious such as no consent exams, unnecessary visitors/vendors/spectators, as well as patient video and photography. If I do need surgery I plan on protecting my privacy and modifying my consent form to prevent this, which according to my local hospital's patient bill of rights, is my right. My question is will the surgical staff honor my requests or will the attitude be that once I'm under anesthesia it's game-on and what I don't know about doesn't matter?

I am not a healthcare provider but I am wondering why the consent forms seem to be presented to the patient sometimes minutes before they are taken to surgery. Why wouldn't the doctor and patient want to go over this in a lower pressure office environment instead of right before surgery? I would think getting it ahead of time would make things run more smoothly for everybody on the day of surgery.

I was being transferred from the OR to the recovery room after a bilateral hydrocelectomy and one the people transporting me, a male (either an orderly, tech, or nurse, I don't know) without saying a single word just lifts up my covers and takes a peek. Can't imagine the need to be "re-checked" so soon since I was only out of the OR less than a minute. Nobody else had to take another peek the remaining hours in recovery. Seemed real pervy to me since they said absolutely nothing.