Worst Case Scenario

Similar to the theme in the last post, in the surgical ICU, we see the post-op patients that have the complications. A kidney transplant is complicated by dissection of an iliac artery. A laparoscopic cholecystectomy is converted to an open one in a patient with heart failure and renal failure. A patient with a history of eighteen gastrointestinal surgeries comes because her IV for nutrition may be infected. When I look at these worst case scenarios, the things that have gone wrong, I overestimate the risk of surgical interventions. I wonder why a patient with cardiac and renal failure had an elective procedure or why a man with chronic abdominal pain keeps getting operated upon until he has no functioning gut. But of course for each patient that comes to the ICU, I don't see the many who do well and have no problems. It's odd to have this skewed view of things, but it also teaches me to appreciate the vast possibility of outcomes, even for simple procedures.