moment of the day

Context: Discussing the one-complication-after-the-next Whipple procedure we performed yesterday.

Student: I'm not exactly sure, but I thought I saw a spleen in the trash at one point during the operation.
Doctor: Ah yes. Another complication of surgery.

Not amusing in the sense that Mr. yellow lost his spleen due to a surgeon's hand slip. Amusing in the sense that I immediately pictured informing patients that a rare but disturbing side effect of their coming surgery is spleens spontaneously appearing in trash cans.


On a related note, after surgeries of this ilk, patients often have to be fed initially through a tube directly into their small intestine. Our head surgeon absolutely insists that when this was first done in France the meal of choice was eggs, cheese, and wine. We of course were dubious as to the legitimacy of this, but he insisted that it was not only true, but actually logical. Eggs and cheese for calories and protein. And the wine? "It goes well with breakfast. And helps with depression." Exact quote.