Funny, but true story that happened one evening in a surgery......................
Preface: we have an anesthesiologist at our facility. Dr. C. is our resident "muscle man"...he is a professional body builder..he's also a little arrogant, cocky, and curses like a sailor. I, on the other hand am meek, mild and rarely if ever, curse. I also am very modest and blush when embarrassed. That said, on with the story....
Scenario:
People in Operating room: patient (who thankfully was already "asleep" and unaware of situation, me, surgeon, scrub tech, retractor (person who holds body parts out of way so surgeon can work, Dr. C., anesthesia student, 3 nursing students, 2 xray staff, another scrub tech who came to help, and a nurse anesthestist who came to help Dr. C., so at least 13 staff in this room.
Situation: a very sick patient with a bad bowel, was being intubated. Due to her condition, it was feared that she may have aspirated upon intubation...meaning fluid went into her lungs which is a bad thing. Dr. C. was supervising the intubation and ordered a "flexible bronchoscope" so he could "look" into her lungs by going down her windpipe.
We don't have one of these in our area, so he barked at me to "call cardio pulmonary and tell them to bring us a flexible bronchoscope"... I called our front desk 'cause I didn't have the number and she called the other department.
Funny part of story: A few minutes later, she transferred a staff member from cardio-pulmonary to our room...she asked exactly what we wanted....I called across the room to Dr. C and relayed the question.....he asked who it was, I told him her name, and he said "Tell her we need a flexible bronchoscope and HTFU".
I being the compliant nurse that I am, repeated this exactly. As I said the HTFU, people started laughing and I looked up and Dr. C. started laughing and I realized what I had said. In case you haven't figured it out by now, HTFU stands for "Hurry The F*** UP". As I figured it out, the girl was still on the line and I profusely apologized. I naively thought that it was the name of a machine or something. The whole room was laughing hysterically!
This story has now circulated around our OR....now, anybody that was in that room and even others who have heard the story, will frequently mention to me, something about HTFU!
Footnote: the patient was fine and the surgery proceeded and was successful
5 comments:
That is too funny, I would have done the same thing!
I wouldn't have known not to say it either. I hope you get them back with a joke of your own.
Karen aka marrid66
Here On Columbia Avenue
Da Boss And Bryguy
4 Cats Make Me Crazy!
Did your patient know so many people would be in the room? I would have been extremely upset, especially about the nursing students. Do you ask or at least inform the patient that she would be operated on in Grand Central Station?
I was wondering if ther were any nurses that had experiences with foley catheters could answer any questions ?
lol..if i was the staff from the cardio-pulmonary, i might have directly headed to pick up those things and later return to ask what does HTFU means having failed to find it..
Post a Comment