ABA - Always Blame Anesthesia
Is my life a fucking joke??
Not to get into too many details, but the surgeon cancelled the surgery in the OR today because...why?
In short, I had a concern regarding our airway mid-case. I alerted the surgeon and explained my concerns. I asked him to check the airway from his side. It seemed fine, so I asked to pause the procedure and check the airway from above. He agreed and left the room. I checked the airway from above and saw no issues. The surgical fellow called the attending to let him know that I was done and there were no problems. The attending replied that he was cancelling the case. The patient was stable this entire time.
Everyone was flabbergasted. I think every single person could feel my complete confusion and knew that I was wondering if I had done something wrong. The surgical intern looked me dead in the eyes and said "you did nothing wrong."
I called my attending, but his phone wasn't working. I ended up extubating with my substaffing CA3 (lucky I had one today). I told my attending what had happened, and he assured me that it sounded like I did everything right for the patient's safety. We brought the patient to PACU.
My attending texted me later that the circulating nurse sought him out to say that I did wonderful and the surgeon threw a tantrum for no reason. He reiterated multiple times, in person and via text, that what I did was the right thing. I know I did, but I can't help wondering if I could have said something in a different way that would have led to a different outcome.
I just feel so terrible for the patient. She will now have to come back a second time for this procedure. She is the real victim of this situation, and it sucks feeling like I played a part in it.















