# Man catches fire during heart surgery
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-catches-fire-during-heart-surgery/299954
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 18, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-catches-fire-during-heart-surgery/299954 "2005-04-18T22:41:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-catches-fire-during-heart-surgery/299954/1 "2005-04-18T22:41:51Z")
[Yet another](http://dailynews.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=757&e=1&u=/nm/20050418/od_nm/life_patient_fire_dc&sid=84439559) reason not to trust hospitals:
> [@](#):
>
> Caplan said fires are known to occur in operating rooms although they were extremely rare.
:eek: :eek: :eek:
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2005, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-catches-fire-during-heart-surgery/299954/2 "2005-04-18T22:53:30Z")
Frankly, I’d be surprised if fires **never** happened in hospitals. Bring chemicals and sparks together, and it’s bound to happen eventually. (I’m assuming some kind of wound cauterizer or something similar was involved.) You have a better chance of burning in your home or car.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2005, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-catches-fire-during-heart-surgery/299954/3 "2005-04-18T23:28:11Z")
Boy, you talk about your “crash and burn”…
Something similar happened to one of my med school roommates’ patients. A guy was in 3rd degree heart block, with iffy blood pressure. They were prepping him for a stat pacemaker placement and had just wiped the chest off with alcohol when he went into Ventricular fibrillation. Of course they reached for the defibrillator, shocked him, and set him on fire.
He didn’t make it either.
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### Author:  [@Etherman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Etherman)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2005, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-catches-fire-during-heart-surgery/299954/4 "2005-04-18T23:52:25Z")
Now _that’s_ bad heartburn.
Good thing they aren’t still using ether for anaesthesia.
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2005, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-catches-fire-during-heart-surgery/299954/5 "2005-04-19T00:10:14Z")
Damn, I was hoping this was gonna be spontaneous combustion.
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### Author:  [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-catches-fire-during-heart-surgery/299954/6 "2005-04-19T00:43:43Z")
> [@Otto](#):
>
> Damn, I was hoping this was gonna be spontaneous combustion.
No, spontaneous combustion is in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=312456&highlight=brandy+nebuliser)
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### Author:  [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2005, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-catches-fire-during-heart-surgery/299954/7 "2005-04-19T01:46:17Z")
> [@](#):
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> The patient died after the surgery but that was due to heart failure and not the fire, said Dr. Robert Caplan, medical quality director of Virginia Mason.
That rumbling you hear out on the west coast has nothing to do with the San Andreas fault…it’s a herd of trial lawyers charging toward Seattle looking to find fault.
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### Author:  [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2005, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-catches-fire-during-heart-surgery/299954/8 "2005-04-19T02:08:50Z")
Dayum! I would hate to have to chart on _that!_
I thought it would be a build up of static electricity causing a spark etc.
Dayum.
I like the “clarification” made by the admin rep–heart failure, not burns were the cause of death.
Well, I feel better knowing that, don’t you?