13 year old in the OR for C-sec
From: Marc J. Burkhart, M.D. (marcb@ic.new-ulm.mn.us)
Sun Mar 17 23:38:55 1996
I've had a request from a patient to have her husband and her 13 year old
daughter in the OR for a scheduled repeat C-sec.
The patient is a public health school nurse. She says that she wants her
oldest daughter there so the family can bond right away. She states if she
were delivering in the labor room with a vaginal delivery, the daughter
could be there.
We have an OR policy allowing only one support person in the OR for a
C-section so we can avoid a "cast of thousands" with the associated risks
for infection, the need for the circulating nurse to watch all the
spectators to make sure they're not passing out, etc.
None of the OR nursing staff are comfortable with a 13 year old observer and
I am not either. The patient says she is going to go 25 miles down the road
to the next hospital (where she delivered previously).
She's getting her prenatal care by one of the family physicians and so now
it appears I've lost him a patient also.
Any thoughts or comments.
--
Marc J. Burkhart, M.D.
New Ulm Medical Center
New Ulm
MN 56073
507-354-4101
P.S. I think this initially went in while the list was down. Sorry if it
gets doubled.
