If a doctor suddenly had a heart attack ...?

Question

while performing surgery, would the other doctors continue on the patient or help the doctor?

Answer 1

Both...now there are two lives to save. Remember there are nurses and assistants there too and they are no slouches

Answer 2

So basically you want to know when do they actually stop an operation midway. The same situation arises when a fire alarm goes off. Also, the patient may have a heart attack.

It really depends on the kind of operation. As soon as a surgeon feels ill, another one is asked to take over. Presumably one of the other staff in the theatre will be arranging for transport to another area. The anaesthetist who is in the theatre will probably give first aid and if required resuscitate the doctor. In every hospital there is CRASH team which arrives in 5 minutes for an emergency. If there is no help arriving, the surgeons who are operating will help the doctor till the CRASH team arrives. Most operations can be paused for a reasonable time period.

In real life, I think this is unlikely to be a problem as there are too many medical personnel around in the operating room.

Answer 3

it's difficult for the layman to understand, not having been inside an OR. but surgeries don't really have the kind of urgency that you see on TV, meaning that it's not as if nothing interrupts what's going on the table at the time (unless you're talking about trauma surgery). i've been in cases where something that should have taken 6 hours took 8 instead because the attending tried to be in 2 places at once (and left the patient on the table during the time she was gone).

also, there are lots of people in the OR at once. the only people actually scrubbed in and working would be an attending, a chief resident (or lower level resident), a scrub nurse, and sometimes a med student (at a teaching hospital). there are usually 1 or 2 other nurses not scrubbed in around to open instruments for the scrub nurse, there's an anesthesiologist at the head of the patient (he doesn't scrub and sits and monitors the patient during the case), and maybe other necessary personnel (e.g., radiology tech).

so to answer your question...

if a chief resident or lower level resident drops to the floor, the attending will probably pause, ask the person what's going on, figure out something's wrong, and get the nurse to call for a stretcher. however, the most likely person to step in and actually help the doctor in distress would be the anesthesiologist, since they have the training and they handle life-threatening situations more often than a surgeon. the attending surgeon would likely continue working, though would also have someone call in another resident to take the place. scrubbing takes time and effort, and there's a whole sterile protocol you have to follow. so if the attending compromises himself, then he'd have to start all over. after a while, everyone learns not to touch anything and react calmly (for ex, if someone throws something at you, most people would try to catch it -- a surgeon scrubbed in the OR is likely to hold his gloved hands together, placed above the waist, and duck so the sterile field is not contaminated) once scrubbed in. and he knows there are other people around to help (e.g., nurses) and even others who are even more qualified than him (e.g., anesthesiologist), so most likely, he will not break scrub to help. of course, it depends on the doctor as well.

if the attending drops to the floor, the same thing above could happen. however, most residents cannot or would not be willing to complete a surgery alone (they're not supposed to anyway, unless it's a chief resident), so i can see a resident breaking scrub to help the attending. but same rules apply: there are other people more qualified in the OR to help. so i think it's just as likely that the resident will just stand there while others help the fallen attending, then wait for another attending to come in, make the decision whether to continue or not.

and even if everyone in the OR suddenly loses his/her mind and drops to the floor to help a fallen doctor (attending or not), it's not a big deal for the patient unless it's an emergency operation. as i mentioned, surgeries aren't actually that time constrained (cases go late and start late all the time). and it happens all the time that the personnel will wait 10, 20, 30min with the opened patient on the table for various reasons (e.g., sometimes because the x-ray machine has to get to the OR, or the residents are waiting for the attending to arrive before continuing, etc.)

Answer 4

A heart surgery is done in Operation theater by a team of medical professionals consisting about 15 or 16 persons viz. surgeons, anesthetist, cardiologists, machine/instrument operators, assistants, nurses etc., and all the 15 persons does not have work at the same time. Only 3 to 4 persons will be doing the job at a time.

The doctor who had the heart attack will not or need not be kept in the Operation theater. The cardiologist can attend him first and assisted by ward boys, nurses he will be shifted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for further treatment.

It is very simple.

Further now a days in hospitals performing heart surgeries, 5 to 8 cases are attended simultaneously and it will not be a problem to attend a case explained by you.-

Answer 5

Most surgeries are not that "critical" that if everyone steps back for a minute to take care of the physician who has dropped, it would hamper patient care that much. Other people would be called in to take care of the downed person as well.

That said, oftentimes, in smaller hospitals or clinics, there may only be one doctor in the operating room at that time. Yes, another doctor can be called in fairly quickly in most circumstances to at least close the patient, but you might not be able to get another surgeon immediately. I know if that happened here, the closest surgeon is 30 minutes away.

Answer 6

both, there are so many people involved in an operation and if a cardiac arrest happened anywhere in the hospital then the crash team would be called immediately. depending on the surgery being performed, the patient would probably be less at risk than the doctor as they would already have adequate airway management as they would be intubated by the anaesthetist and this is one of the most important aspects of an emergency situation

Answer 7

The surgeon would likely be brought down to the ER to receive care while another surgeon would likely come in and close up the patient undergoing surgery.

Answer 8

A funny thing happened along these lines. Britney Spears accidently ran over a papparazzi guy (Hoorah!) and she went into shock. The paramedics arrived and immediately ignored the broken-legged photographer to treat the hyper-ventilating Britney.
I doubt this answers your question, but I hope it gives you a chuckle anyway. I laughed for days.

Tommy Lee and Sean Penn kick-****.

Answer 9

They would call 'code blue',and all hospital staff would come to the scene--to help both the Dr.,and the patient.

Answer 10

i imagine they could: call a medical institution code - pause the surgical procedure - and artwork on the physician; after physician is taken out of the OR (both after surviving or no longer) the surgical procedure is maximum like resumed if it would properly be - or they could go with to reschedule