Surgeon’s guilt after postoperative complication

• Authors: Kaushik Bhattacharya , Neela Bhattacharya

Abstracts

EN

Surgery is an art, surgical dilemmas are not mathematical problems with rigid, straight cut solutions and the human mind/body is not a perfect science. In such a scenario, unexpected, sudden complications can happen during surgery. While better diagnostic and advanced techniques in surgery, have minimised surgical errors to a great extent, with the risk of post-operative death being as low as 3.6% now, still when complications due occur, the surgeon faces a huge backlash not only from the patient relatives, but from his peers, the hospital management, the social and print media. The surgeon also fears violent retribution, not just consumer issues but a threat of arrest and legal battles. All these make a surgeon the “second victim” in the event of a post-operative complication, leading to changes in practice behaviour, emotional turmoil and even serious mental issues like depression and suicide. In this era of instant judgement by a largely unregulated social media, it is urgently required to address this issue and provide appropriate strength/support to the surgical fraternity.

Keywords

EN

complication; burnout; surgical error; second victim

• Publisher: Index Copernicus International
• Journal: Polish Journal of Surgery
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 94
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 45-48

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Kaushik Bhattacharya

author

Neela Bhattacharya

Identifiers

DOI

10.5604/01.3001.0015.6986

Biblioteka Nauki

58535310