About gall stones

[This is from Dr. Mercola’s latest online newsletter. What really
grabbed me about this article is that while I was in the ER this weekend
with the gallstone attack, my wife says she overhead two ER doctors
talking with each other about how little sleep they get, and how tired
they always are. One was telling the other that he was so tired at one
point, he actually caused a four car pile-up upon leaving the hospital
after his shift. My wife says he was actually LAUGHING about this,
saying that it wasn’t funny then, but it sure is funny now. I’ll bet it
still isn’t funny to the people who were in the other three cars. These
guys disgust me to no end. — Steve Barwick]
Sleep Deprivation Ups Risk of Surgical Mistakes
Sleep-deprived surgeons may be putting their patients at risk for
life-threatening complications that could be avoided with a good night’s
sleep.
Their study found that 14 surgeons in training who got less than 3 hours

of sleep after working a 17-hour shift made significantly more errors
when performing laparoscopic surgery, a minimally invasive procedure,
due in part to lack of concentration and coordination. The surgeons were
not operating on real patients, but were using a “virtual reality”
surgery system.
The surgeons also took longer to perform certain tasks associated with
the surgery.
A potential risk for compromising patient safety exists with the current
system where doctors may need to perform surgery after a sleepless
night. Hospitals should ensure that a sufficient number of doctors are
available to share workloads and stop the common practice of allowing
physicians to work after a night during which they are “on call,” or
available for emergencies.
British Medical Journal November 24, 2001;323:1222-1223
DR. MERCOLA’S COMMENT:
Some physicians believe that they are somehow immune to normal
physiological requirements. Of course, this is just not true.
Additionally, there are surgical residents in training who really do not
have a choice in the selection of how much sleep they can receive.
Fortunately most of us are not having surgery performed in a training
center where this is a real issue. If you or someone you know is having
a surgical procedure, you will want to make certain that your surgeon
has had enough sleep the last few nights before it.
If you cant confirm that I would encourage you to consider canceling
and rescheduling the surgery. You need to look out for yourself. It is
clear that the medical profession in general is not doing that for
you since they are directly or indirectly responsible for being the
third leading cause of death in the US.
Related Articles:
British Journal Finds “One in Ten Harmed in Hospital”