Otolaryngologist Dr. David Roberson has first-hand experience with medical errors. He remembers one near-miss in a patient about to receive a cochlear implant -- and says it typifies the kinds of mistakes he and his colleagues have turned up in a national survey. ''I looked at the CT scan carefully to determine if the cochlea would accept the implant,'' recalls Roberson, from the Department of Otolaryngology and Communication Disorders at Children's Hospital Boston. ''I asked a colleague to look at it also, and he commented that the auditory nerves looked small. I then ordered an MRI which showed the patient had no auditory nerves on either side. I came close to performing surgery and putting a major device in a child's head when there was no possibility of benefit, since she had no auditory nerve. I didn't look carefully enough at the entire scan.''
Link through ScienceBlog
Posted by gruwell at August 4, 2004 8:21 AM