This Week's Discussion: "Right of Conscience Rule"

Dear Patients and Readers,

PLEASE read the following important announcement about the "Right of Conscience Rule", and if after you read about the "issue", you are morally and ethically led, write to your federal congressman and federal senator as well as to Health and Human Services (HHS) and ask that the "Right of Conscience Rule" NOT BE RESCINDED!!!

Also, very importantly, spread the issue about the "Right of Conscience Rule" to anyone that works in "Healthcare" i.e. nurses, doctors, and etc, and PLEASE let them know that the comment period to HHS (Health and Human Services) ends on April 9, 2009. This issue is not about "abortion" but about "health care" professionals being able to say "NO" to participating in abortions without being fearful about losing "their" job.

Your comments are due by April 9!

HHS email is: proposedresdrescission@hhs.gov

(FYI: My letter to My federal legislators)

As an Operating Room Nurse, the "Rule of Conscience" Law has allowed me the freedom, i.e. the choice not to participate or assist on abortions (the killing of babies).  A baby is a perfectly formed human by 12 weeks (3 months) and it is not just a blob of tissue!  In fact, the heart is beating when the child is a couple days old!

The "Rule of Conscience" allowed me to say "no" to assisting on abortions withouth the fear of losing my job and without the fear of any other reprisal against me.

I witnessed an abortion when I still was in Nursing School many years ago...and the sight of the dead baby after it was burned by a hypertonic IV saline solution which was injected into the woman's uterus, is still vivid in my mind.  The poor woman who aborted her six month old baby didn't even realize that she would have "labor pains" aborting her dead baby! 

Some of the abortion techniques have changed over the years but they are all horrific and they all end up causing the baby's death.  The "partial birth" abortion technique is especially horrendous.  Ironic is the "issue" that in many ORs, a baby is saved in one room and is killed in another room.  Today, however, this issue of the "Rule of Conscience" is not about abortion but about our freedom to choose "not to assist on abortions."  Also, this is not about assisting on "miscarriages" in which the baby is already dead.

For more information, see: www.priestsforlife.org/legislation

Well, as far as my "post-op issues" which should not have ever occurred, I am at the point that I need to decide WHEN to have the implant and its six screws removed as well as have more "bone removed." Even though the "top" of the implant is protruding into my throat and causing me to have choking issues when I eat and drink, and even though "one of the screws has been partially "out" since the operation and who knows what the heck IT might do to my esophagus (since I had an anterior procedure, the screw is also protruding into the esophagus) IT all boils down to FEAR! FEAR of going through post-op pain as I did the last time, even though I had neck surgery at two levels, the excruciating pain I experienced post-op, was in both of my arms all the way down to my thumbs not in my neck area, but my arms! Now I have chronic pains in my arms and shoulders also, oh yes, my shoulders. I have two rotator cuff tears, oh YES, these and a couple more issues have all been "verified" by tests in two different teaching hospitals! FEAR is a terrible thing, and although I am not afraid of dying, I don't want to die before my time. I have grandchildren and I still want to see them grow up! Oh, it is so much "fun" being an injured patient!

So my research on "errors" in the operating rooms continues! The number of "errors" keeps rising and rising!!!!

I am on many sites everyday, and everyday I am astonished at "what" is going on or should I say, "what is not going on in the operating rooms today!" Errors that should not be
occurring are occurring!

• Wrong parts of the body (sites) are being operated on.
• Prep solutions burning patients' cornea.
• Burns of the face from basically an explosion of the oxygen which came in contact with a spark from a "bovie," an electrical unit with a pencil like end which "cauterizes"
  bleeding tissue so the surgeon can see into the operative field.
• Patients falling off the OR table.
• Sponges and instruments being left in patients.
• Syringes being re-used.
• Colonoscopes not being "cleaned" properly between patients.
• Patients "feeling" the cutting.
• What about "tired" residents who fall asleep at the OR table during a patient's surgery?
• What about a "gastric tube" being placed into the lungs and then having someone pour "liquid nutrition" into the tube?
• Patients surgical site being infected.
• Patients experiencing "urinary tract" infections in the hospital.
• Patients surgical site being infected and resulting in necrotizing fasciitis (flesh eating bacteria).
• Specimens labeled incorrectly.
• No "seat belt" over a patient's thighs during surgery (depends what kind of surgery is being done).
• No proper "color coded" bracelet on patient "denoting" allergies, etc etc.
• Food being eaten in the OR.
  
• IV bags with medications in them, not labeled.
  
• Sterile technique not being adhered to.
  
• Lack of proper instrumentation and supplies on a patient's case.
  
• No blood available for major cases.
  
• Patient's ID not verified properly.
  
• Patient's allergies not "listed" correctly.
  
• Medicine cups on the scrub person's table NOT LABELED!
  
• Lack of verification of medications being given to the scrub person.
  
• Lack of proper training for the job of "scrub person." Did they receive OTJ (on the job training?), are they licensed or certified, are they "working" outside of their job description? (someone working in central supply washing instruments and all of a sudden that person is assisting on C-sections).
  
• Do patients realize that a MD with a "short white coat is a newbie while the MD with a
  long white coat is more experienced? (BUT beware of some MDs who do wear a long coat).
  
• NICE does not mean that "person" knows what they are doing or is qualified to do what they are doing
  
• A bowel "perforation" from the cautery usually occurring in "band aid surgery" (laporoscopy) does not show up for several days, then peritonitis has already set in.
• ALL the above "issues" should have NEVER occurred! ALL the issues are preventable!

I am attempting to "keep" the verbiage simple so my statements are clear to non-operating room people.

So till next time,
Blessings
Helen French RN,BSN