A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the OR

Everywhere I go, I see amusing incidents, even while being prepped for surgery. There I was in an open-backed hospital gown. My IV had just been started, and I was trying to relax, before being wheeled into the operating room -- it happened. A fellow patient was also being prepped; but instead of relaxing, he was busy with his iPhone, trying to get just one more web search done, before his phone was taken away.

The prep nurse asked for the phone to be shut off – no response from the patient, just more thumb typing. The nurse shrugged and continued the preparation of “joy juice”, a strong Valium cocktail to mark the beginning of the surgical stupor. The somewhat large syringe frightened Mr. One-More-Search. He almost begged that he not be given a shot and was relieved to find out that the joy juice would be administered via the already in-place IV. I watched the nurse squeeze the contents of the syringe into my neighbor’s bloodstream.

The nurse left the room, and I began counting. At about 5 seconds, I suggested that my neighbor shut down his phone, so that he would not lose any data. At about 7 seconds, the other patient looked my way, tried to frown, then just went to sleep. The phone remained upright in the patient’s extended hand for a few more seconds, and then it slowly oozed between his fingers, falling to the mattress of the gurney. I would have laughed out loud, but my own joy juice cocktail had taken effect.

Joy juice or comedy, the OR medical staff must have been surprised by the silly grin on my face.