ENSURING FULL EVALUATION BEFORE SURGERY – EXAMPLES
As with other treatments, so it is with surgery— no one can look into the future and tell you exactly what will happen to you as an individual. In the case of surgery, they can’t even always tell you exactly what the operation will involve.
Let’s start with an example. Say a person agreed to removal of part of the lower bowel, on the understanding that this would give him a good chance of being cured of bowel cancer altogether. At the operation, his surgeon finds something that was not known before the operation—the cancer has grown through the bowel wall and into the wall of the bladder. The cancer cannot be completely removed without removing part of the bladder as well. Even if this is done, the chance of cure is much smaller than was advised beforehand. This surgeon has two choices. He or she can take the decision away from the patient by going ahead immediately with whatever operation seems best. This is what most surgeons do. Or the surgeon could simply sew the patient up again and discuss the new situation with him when he wakes up. Clearly this wouldn’t be good for the sick person, who would then have to consider having another operation within a very short time. It also wouldn’t be good for the surgeon. The average surgeon is much too concerned with maintaining his or her power and authority over the patient to even consider such a course of action. Doing this would mean admitting lack of care in planning the operation. More importantly, it would also mean acknowledging that the person having the operation was indeed the best person to make the decision.
*225/40/1*
