OK! Just talked with doc Failsafe, who browsed the image from his work PC to tell us:

- Yes, that is the guy's unit, and it's common to see in abdominal x-rays. The image is of a smaller area than we think. It's pretty much just the abdominal area, not up to the guy's neck.

- The male member is definitely soft tissue ("speak for yourself," I said) and not as dense as bone. But soft tissue will show in x-rays, and in this shot failasfe identified such other soft tissue as the heart (to the right of the spine, the hazy area below the word "University"), the liver, the colon, the stomach air pocket, and even a kidney.

- Retractors like this can be more flexible than we might think. The worst case is if it eroded a major organ...

- He was very surprised to see it and especially to see the image released, since it has all the other info at the top. Most medical centers routinely x-ray patients before closing, to make sure there aren't any parts left. The most common part to leave in is a sponge. They now put a barium loop on all sponges, that can be easily seen in an x-ray. He suspects that what might have happened is the radiologist noted the problem but someone didn't take it seriously.

What I find disturbing is that this is what drew your attention first rather than the foot-long steel bar inside the man's torso.

"The UWMC agreed to pay Church $97,000 after accepting responsibility for the mistake."

Now, see, I read things like that, and I can't help but think what might have been. 6 years ago, I got a Double Quarter Pounder value meal from McDonalds for dinner. I get home, unpack it all, take a nice size bite out of the burger, swallow it, and note that it tasted funny. I looked down, and both patties were totally raw.

Now, I wanted to sue immediately. I mean, McDonalds gave out 7 million because a lady was dumb enough to not think her cup of coffee was hot, this was a violation of the Pure Food and Drug Act (I believe. If not that particular one, then some Upton Sinclair-inspired statute). This was serious. But no, my mother told me to call McDonalds and tell them of their mistake.

So, being as I wasn't taller than her then, I consented, went upstairs, got the Yellow Pages, and called. I tell them what happened, and they say that I would get a coupon for a free Extra Value Meal. (never happened). Dejected, I walk down the stairs, and wouldn't you know it, my mother took the patties and put them in a frying pan and cooked them through.

I'm going to take some sleeping pills now...

~mike

Hiya Failsafe!
Can't imagine anyone thinking it's anything else. A bit like that body-painting IODT where all the guys (and at least one girl) were commenting on the puppy-painted boobs but nobody had anything to say about the guy with the elephant whose trunk was his schlong.

I was talking with Bronwyn about this this evening; she is now a nurse practitioner and working in an ER. She says that with the image storage/enhancement equipment they use on radiographs now that when someone has bandaged a cut finger, they can make out the finger, the bandage wrapped around the finger, and the tape holding the bandage...as well as wrinkles in the skin and the cut.

Guess what!

http://cellar.org/pictures/xray2.jpg

Fark had it today: the very same hospital left the very same piece of equipment in another patient (this time a female one)!

<a href="http://www.komotv.com/news/story.asp?ID=15754">The article describing the second case</a>

jesus...
 

What, is December "Free Retractor Month" at this hospital? They must either like giving away their money in hundred-K chunks, or they have Rodney Dangerfield working as a surgeon.

Do you think that doctors do this to their co-workers as a practical joke? To see who can sneak the biggest object into a patient? Maybe this patient is payback to the first guy that did it?

I bet the injury lawyers are fighting in the parking lot over who gets to talk to this person first.

*mental note*

Do not go to University of Washington Medical Center for any operations...

That is seriously fucked up. Even better, at the bottom, there's a little gem of a statistic: at that hospital, between now and 1997, there have been 5 cases of instruments left in the patient. Luckily, none has resulted in a fatality. But that's stilly very seriously fucked up. They say that they've "always counted the smaller things" - yet somehow they miss a crowbar in someone's abdomen. God. They're sooooooooooooo getting sued.

Ah writing for clarity. Now that I re-read my post, they didn't leave "the very same piece of eqiupment" in the other patient. They left one exactly like it.

If they left the very same piece of equipment, they would have had to remove it from patient #1 and put it into patient #2.

Defintely possible. Particularly since the settlement. Perhaps a memo to be more frugal...

I can see it now:

TO: All UWMC Personnel

FROM: The Boss

RE: Our Fuckups

From now on, please try to take operating instruments removed from prior patients to the specified areas of the OR. There have been complaints that said instruments have made their way into other patients. Thank you.

ADDEND: Dr. Farker's "How To Operate" refresher course has been moved to Thursday at 3 p.m. Attendance is mandatory. Or not. You know, whatever.

~mike

I just showed this to a teacher of mine, who had a bunch of x-rays done. She says that this is made up, man.

~mike

Originaly posted by Chewbaccus:
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Did she give a reason or did she simply say she didn't buy it?

If you search around enough on the web, you find out that, sadly, it's *very* real.

Tell your teacher to piss off ;)