"we've gotta roll with the punches, learn to play all of our hunches Making the best of what ever comes our way Forget that blind ambition and learn to trust your intuition Plowing straight ahead come what may And theres a cowboy in the jungle" Jimmy Buffet
March 05, 2018, 09:12 PM
sigfreund
Hospitals and doctors here don’t go through the elaborate routines that are required these days because mistakes like this haven’t happened in this country. Years ago I had a hernia operation and as I was about to be sedated, it was like an interrogation: “What’s your name?” “Why are you here?” “What side is it on?” Imagine waking up with a leg missing when it was supposed to be an appendectomy.
► 6.4/93.6
“Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.” — Plato
March 05, 2018, 09:17 PM
DrDan
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Originally posted by Oat_Action_Man:
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Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
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Originally posted by SapperSteel:
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Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
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Originally posted by 12131: In a twist, the patient who actually has a blood clot may not get surgery after all because their condition has improved.
Oh, is there more than one? (Sorry, just a huge pet peeve of mine)
But seriously, remind me never to have surgery in Kenya. Check that...in Africa.
I'm guessing that the press didn't want to reveal the gender of the patient, so rather than saying "his" or "her", they went with "their".
I know. I absolutely hate the prevalence of that practice, particularly in writing.
But like I said, it's a pet peeve. Not necessarily wrong in today's English. (Though I think it's wrong)
They as a gender-neutral pronoun or as used when no gender was specified for the antecedent is hundreds of years old in English, going back essentially to Middle English. Renowned English authors (i.e. the King's English English) have used it.
It's a fine and upstanding pronoun and extremely useful.
Thank you, OAM, for your fine defense of an innocent, but unjustly maligned pronoun.
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March 05, 2018, 09:26 PM
Rey HRH
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Originally posted by roarindan: We had a "doctor" up here that removed the wrong leg....on two different people!!
I heard both patients sued the doctor but in each case, the judge threw the lawsuit out. He said they didn't have a leg to stand on.
"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.
March 05, 2018, 10:04 PM
Gustofer
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Originally posted by sigfreund: Hospitals and doctors here don’t go through the elaborate routines that are required these days because mistakes like this haven’t happened in this country.
I used to work with an orthopedist who replaced the wrong knee. And it wasn't that long ago - seven or eight years ago. Following that little episode, the time-outs at that hospital became ridiculously long and elaborate.
________________________________________________________ "Great danger lies in the notion that we can reason with evil." Doug Patton.
March 05, 2018, 10:18 PM
Balzé Halzé
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Originally posted by Oat_Action_Man:
They as a gender-neutral pronoun or as used when no gender was specified for the antecedent is hundreds of years old in English, going back essentially to Middle English. Renowned English authors (i.e. the King's English English) have used it.
It's a fine and upstanding pronoun and extremely useful.
Oh nonsense. It's hardly ever acceptable in formal writing. Nor should it be. But I guess something that should be obvious has become a matter of opinion nowadays. Such is the English language though.
~Alan Acta Non Verba NRA Life Member (Patron) God, Family, Guns, Country
Men will fight and die to protect women... because women protect everything else. ~Andrew Klavan
"Once there was only dark. If you ask me, light is winning." ~Rust Cohle
(Sorry, just a huge pet peeve of mine)