Eliminating Cross-Contamination in Operating Room

In My Humble Opinion
1

Back story:

Last May - in the year of our lord 2019, my small Podunk town hospital/ER took one or two looks at me and abruptly send me to Big City hospital with cuter nurses and a better menu. I have been here ever since, and every test and/or procedure resulted in not so good news. (But I am not upset or anything).

The doctors and nurses have literally saved my life, though I did have some doubtful moments when I first arrived here in their ICU and had some procedures done. At least 3 ICU surgeons visited me the next day and all basically said the same thing, “If this operation/procedure doesn’t work, the best we can do is make you comfortable as possible. Are you able to contact your next-of-kin?”. Nope…in my rush to get to ER via 911, I left my cell phone on the kitchen counter. WHERE ALL MY CONTACTS RESIDE!

I am now much better and have brighter thoughts about the future. (If anyone is curious about what was wrong with me (which I doubt), I have two sheets of paper listing in medical terminology and cryptic medical codes about all my ailments and surgeries going back at least to my birth).

Now on to my GQ question, my interest in a fact-based answer would be greatly appreciated.

FACT: I was bored out of my skull lying (laying?) in a hospital bed and looking at scenery that never changes or cable TV channels which is about the same.
FACT: Hey, I got a few dollars on my VISA. Why not spend it on something besides Amazon Prime movies and/or books! Something interesting to overcome my boredom.
FACT: They have guest/patient internet access and loanable iPads here!

To make a long story less lengthy, I purchased a gamut of camera gear - including a modestly-priced Canon dSLR, 3 lenses (whew, there went my budget! POOF!), flash, tripod, lens filters, various batteries, etc., and a divers watch just for the bling - and in case they find my body in 300 feet of Lake Michigan water, it wil still be ticking, or else can be sent back for replacement free of charge!

My thought was to document my hospital stay, as I was getting bored with shooting the spring flowers. They are all starting to look alike.
Fine so far, right?

I have a CT scan w/ contrast in a few hours and have a wild & thoughtful question. Mine always are :D, however some of the floor nurses here are just now getting when my off-beat sense of humor kicks in, and would probably laugh to themselves down the hallway, and asking each nurse, “Did you hear about what Cabin_Fever wants to do NOW?”

So now the serious question…what would it take - other than the doctors’/Administrations’/patients’ consent…to decontaminate a camera/tripod set discretely in the corner of the OR and time-lapse record the procedure? It would be better than a home video of my last vacation don 'cha think?
Obviously, I would rather not dunk it in a bucket of bleach. So…what do they do for those real-life television shows?

Thanks for any insights, and for reading this lengthy post.

2

While there is a question in here somewhere, there is likely to be a lot of commentary on other aspects, so at the OP’s suggestion I am moving this to IMHO.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

3

The tripod could be doused in bleach, and the camera placed in a clean plastic bag. Use some clean tape to affix the plastic so it’s taut over the lens, and it won’t interfere much with the image.

I think you’ll have trouble getting consent from the doctors and administrators, but good luck.

4

Imagine the camera, sitting in a corner of the room, pointed at the operating table. What is it going to capture? My guess is that it will capture several people in surgical gowns, gloves, masks and caps leaning over someone on a table. Most of the patient will be draped and nothing of the procedure will be seen. If you’re recording audio, you might capture some four-letter words if Something Bad Happens. But that’s unlikely. And the doctors are going to be concerned that you capture or think you capture some evidence of malpractice.

5

^This.
I’d be surprised if the surgeon allows a camera in the OR, but even if she does, the camera is not going to capture anything interesting.

6

I realize that my ambitious thoughts of recording my procedure will have doctors and hospital staff thinking “He wants to do what?”. (That happens when I get bored laying in a hospital almost 24/7).

Thanks to all for the reminder that it would be boring to the casual viewer. I must think of something else to keep me from going bat-shit crazy.

7

I don’t think boring captures the sentiment of the casual viewer! This opinion is based on the reaction from my wife when I offered to show her my colonoscopy images.

8

I dunno. When I had my colonoscopy, the drugs made me really stoned and tranced out but I never went to sleep. There was a color monitor within my line of sight that was showing the inside of my newly cleaned colon in real time as the procedure was performed. I though it was incredibly fascinating. But those were some powerful drugs.

9

I did my colonoscopy sober, and I also found the images of the inside of my squeaky clean colon to be incredibly fascinating.

10

I have no evidence that this does or does not happen but If I were a hospital’s administrator, chief attorney, chief surgeon, or various other parties I would require high-quality audio and video of every surgical procedure performed at my hospital. Mostly this would be for legal and training purposes and wouldn’t be typically available to patients.

So maybe the operation is going to be video-recorded anyway. If so, perhaps you can get some/all of the video (although who knows with those Big-City types! :mad::p). If any hospitals do this I imagine at least some of the video is detailed and has potentially interesting shots.

11

Maybe, but that’s a lot of video, and the potential landmine if any of it ever gets “loose” would seem to dwarf the potential for training (although it would be good for the legal departments’ paychecks. I suppose that’s “legal purposes”).

12

You could always smuggle in a phone and record the audio of the procedure, though moving onto and off of the operating table might allow the staff to discover and deactivate the phone.

13

A lot of ORs are pretty cozy and there’s just no safe place to stand up a tripod that it wouldn’t be in the way. And who would set it up for you? You’re going to be busy in pre-op.

14

There is no way any hospital/surgeon/anesthesiologist/OR nurse will let you set up a recording device in the OR, so I guess smuggling it in would have to be the way to go. I’d be cautious about hiding something metal directly on my body though because you’d be risking burns from the electrocautery, depending on the type of surgery.

15

To actually answer the OP’s question, having reread the post, no special decontamination would be necessary if the camera wasn’t in the sterile field directly around the operating table. If it were in the sterile field, no decontamination would really be possible and you’d have to put it in a sterile sleeve/plastic bag or something like that.

16

My doula took a number of pictures during my C-section. No objections from anyone in the operating room, and no special procedures needed to decontaminate the camera.

17

People take pictures during c-sections all the time. Generally they are of the mom and baby, not the obstetrician and operative field. Also, everywhere I’ve worked allowed photos but not videos, although that may not be universal.

18

Well, there was definitely at least one picture that had the OB in it (from the back) and had a whole lot of visible blood and gore. I’m not sure exactly what counts as a picture of the “operative field” - my open belly was definitely shown, but not in such a way that you could actually see most of the organs inside.

19

Yeah, that counts.

20

I took pictures during the C-section birth of our triplets with my own phone. I was seated next to my wife’s head, and the OB held each kid up for me as he was pulled out. Doctor and child are both in each photo, and he clearly had no issue with it.

Speaking of decontamination: I was slightly surprised when, on their direction, I went from child to child cutting umbilical cords with the same pair of cutters. No washing, no wiping - just me circling the area with increasingly bloody giant scissors. Kinda Sweeney Todd-ish. :slight_smile: