Tales from the NHS
BBC NEWS | Health | Office supplies 'used on patients'
Some doctors are using improvised equipment such as paperclips and clothes pegs to treat their patients, it is claimed.
...solutions - such as using wooden tongue depressors to splint the limbs of premature babies.
However, two babies died after picking up fungal infections from them.
Other examples of bad practice, claimed the MHRA, included the use of simple paperclips and urinary catheters as makeshift sutures to close surgical wounds, and using clothes pegs to attach monitoring equipment to a patient's earlobe.
Comments
They ought to read Breaking the Chain by Willy Voet (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0224061178/ref=sr_aps_books_1_1/026-7121056-5020439) for advice in turning everyday items into medical equipment. I recall them using coat hangers to hang saline drips off of to quickly dilute the blood if a test was imminent. There's lot of other tips and tricks.
Posted by: Mark Holland | February 4, 2004 6:40 PM