# How many medical procedures are there **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 3, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-medical-procedures-are-there/747835 "2016-03-03T17:08:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-medical-procedures-are-there/747835/21 "2016-03-06T12:59:12Z")
The initial encounter for that one is also pretty unlikely unless these codes are used by coroners. But people have been partly inhaled and survived. The trick is doing it on older engines with a non-moving set of blades on the engine face and on aircraft with long intake tracts. In those circumstances there’s an opportunity for something like earmuffs or safety vest to get sucked in first, followed by the person a moment or two later. The equipment gets into the engine & wrecks it, prompting a lot of noise & vibration so the pilot quickly shuts down. Meanwhile the person either gets hung up partway down the intake or up against the non-moving front blades. And hangs there for the few seconds it takes for the engine RPM to decay to not producing much suction. Not that it wouldn’t feel like an eternity for the victim. Conversely, nobody is going to survive going into a modern airliner fan. The front set of blades is moving and the intake is a smooth short tunnel bigger than most folks arm/leg span. The engine will burp and the person will be burger. Their next “encounter” with the medical industry will be a mop & bucket crew followed by a post-mortem tox test on a tissue sample AKA chunk-o-meat. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-medical-procedures-are-there/747835/22 "2016-03-06T16:05:19Z")
The key to survival is there be a metal screen of some sort just before the engines, upon which the victim’s body is slammed. Then his face can be transposed with that of an intrepid detective to get his brother to talk. ETA: Pretty proud of that subjunctive tense I got going on there. Now if I only were sure it is grammatically correct, ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-medical-procedures-are-there/747835/23 "2016-03-06T16:15:33Z")
The key to survival if sucked into a modern airliner fan is to deftly weave between the blades in “bullet time”. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-medical-procedures-are-there/747835/24 "2016-03-06T16:56:13Z")
And be no bigger than a mouse or small rat. Or able to shape-shift into that cross-section like a very long snake. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-medical-procedures-are-there/747835/25 "2016-03-06T17:12:04Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > And be no bigger than a mouse or small rat. Or able to shape-shift into that cross-section like a very long snake. I think I’d have to code all of those under R46.1, Bizarre personal appearance. Dammit. How are we going to separate the mouse sized people from the snake shapeshifters now?! We need more codes. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-medical-procedures-are-there/747835/26 "2016-03-07T00:34:21Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > … We need more codes. Not to worry. ICD-11 is in the works as we speak. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-medical-procedures-are-there/747835/27 "2016-03-07T01:39:04Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > The key to survival is there be a metal screen of some sort just before the engines, upon which the victim’s body is slammed. > > Then his face can be transposed with that of an intrepid detective to get his brother to talk. > > ETA: Pretty proud of that subjunctive tense I got going on there. Now if I only were sure it is grammatically correct, If such a metal screen were feasible (see the subjunctive there? :D) then one would expect planes to have them. This were discussed (now if I only were sure this is grammatically correct) back when Captain Sully ditched that plane into the Hudson after initial encounter with goose. Turns out, it’s not feasible. See this post by **aerodave** for detailed discussion, the introductory part of which I quote here: > [@Factual Question about the Hudson Rvr Crash](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/factual-question-about-the-hudson-rvr-crash/481606/15): > > Let me vouch for that answer as a propulsion engineer. > > There is nothing practical you can do to prevent a commercial engine from ingesting a bird that is determined to enter the intake. Any screen more robust than some flimsy chicken wire will produce unacceptable pressure losses in the incoming flow. Airlines depend on wringing every last bit of efficiency possible from their engines, and the performance hit from a FOD\* screen that could stop a goose would be massive. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-medical-procedures-are-there/747835/28 "2016-03-07T01:42:40Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > One of the silly examples I listed above was: > By _any_ interpretation of “subsequent encounter”, one wonders how that happens. :smack: Well, maybe they were thinking of [this real incident](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unXNdrtf2_g). Depends on where you draw the line of being sucked "into " a jet engine, I think. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-medical-procedures-are-there/747835.md?page=1)