Home Depot for Some, Neuro Depot for Others

[MannyGoldstein]

An amusing story, at least for me (I'm a medical device designer), from Medagadget.com:

Yes, on the right you see a cordless medgadget (a Bosch cordless drill, like you'd find at the hardware store) used by a renowned neurosurgeon during complicated brain operations. Doctor Henry Marsh of St George's Hospital in London performs pro-bono work in Ukraine twice a year, and has to resort to cheaper tools, not exactly CE Mark approved, when performing surgeries.

When working for the National Health Service, Marsh uses a £30,000 compressed-air medical drill, but he said that the Bosch was an effective stand-in. “There's not a huge difference,” he said. “The drill is Igor's solution. It's simply an ordinary drill which he uses with the standard medical drill bits.

“I have used the Bosch drill myself when I've been operating with Igor. It's exactly the drill that you could have in your garden shed. He bought it at a do-it-yourself shop.”

There is a shortage of fully trained anaesthetists so Marsh's patients are given only a local anaesthetic. This enables him to talk to them to ensure that he is not doing any permanent damage as he drills.

http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2008/03/home_depot_now_also_neuro_depot.html

[Drifter]

1. Reminds me of this ...

When the US first started putting man into space, they discovered that they had to overcome an unusual issue.
How to get a pen to work in the weightlessness of space (since the ink is gravity fed). They proceeded to spend over 3 million dollars developing a pen that works in weightlessness of space.

When asked how the Russians over came this issue ? They used pencils.

Not sure if this is real of an urban legend, but it is the same idea.

The KISS principle - Keep It Simple Stupid.

Cheers
Drifter

[Celebration]

2. I know someone

That had some cherry angiomas that he wanted to get rid of. When insurance wasn't going to cover it, he ordered a soldering iron off Ebay and burned them off himself.

[cosmik debris]

3. That's one brave SOB

to use a drill with an electric motor that makes sparks in an oxygen rich environment like an OR. Not only dose he put his patient in danger but he endangers himself and everyone else in that operating room. But on the bright side, it will only take one explosion to end that practice.

[Celebration]

4. let's see

He does these surgery pro bono and you want him blown up? How nice. In any case, you should not assume that the "operating rooms" are "oxygen rich" since there are neither proper tools nor general anaesthesia in them.

[cosmik debris]

5. There is a very good reason why explosion proof motors

are required in operating rooms. It is to protect the innocent from the ignorant.

As much carping as I have seen in this forum about doctors not knowing their stuff, now I find you are willing to trust a doctor's knowledge of DC motors. How ironic!

[Celebration]

6. Obfuscation

--do you want an explosion to kill him? yes or no

--how do you know that there is any more oxygen in these very primitive "operating rooms" than there is an a Home Depot store?

[cosmik debris]

7. I spent several years doing safety inspections in hospitals,

clinics and doctor's offices. I got paid a large amount of money to be sure things like that were kept out of operating rooms.

You have permission to go take your nap now.

[Celebration]

8. And those inspections were in the Ukraine????? n/t

[cosmik debris]

9. Good night, you'll feel better in the morning.

[MannyGoldstein]

10. Risk Management Is Somewhat Different In Some Environments [nt]