Health Care thoughts: Cameras in the Delivery Room?
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt
Health Care: Cameras in the Delivery Room?
In the old days the delivery of a baby was a medical procedure and dad was relegated to the waiting room. Then we went all new age, and the delivery became a tribal event.
Now we seem to have reached a nice middle ground with comfortable birthing suites and a more balanced emphasis on the medical procedure and the “event.”
But then there are the ubiquitous video and cell phone cameras and suddenly the event is shared through the family, or yes shared with the whole world on Youtube.
The dad-as-cameraman creates various dilemmas, such as getting in the way, or when the birth turns complicated or when mom decides she really does not want her screaming or a picture of her mommy zone to be broadcast at the next family reunion. Some staff are less than pleased about being included in home movies.
Some hospitals are banning video photography. Families respond that hospitals are afraid of malpractice suits. The battle rages. Your thoughts?
(Some physicians are now providing surgery patients with videos of “scopic” procedures such a knee meniscus repairs, or DVDs with MRI images. Interesting viewing.)
I tried to get my orthopedic surgeon to let me watch my hip replacement. He said no way and in retropect he was absolutely right. The last thing in the world he needed was some dolt flipping out on the table.
The liability is his/hers by my demand, and if I assign that to him I have to let him/her control the proceedure. His liability, he gets to call the shots.
The devil is in the equation, details, etc. All things considered, who intheir right mind would want to broadcast to the World, and that is exactly what happens with those cell phones, not to forget the snoops, the procedure of hemorrhoids or some other invasive lookie loo? What has this world come too? Is there no shame, dignity, privacy left? I wonder, do those people in that big windowless building that the Government uses to peek at every message sent in this country, well, use your imagination.
Well, been there. Done that. Didn’t send any invitations. Wasn’t at my best. Nowhere near my best. Yewwwww. Jeez. People need to control their need to spray the world with Too Much Information.
Even though new ortho joint replacement techniques are really amazing, it still comes down to saw, hammer, chisel, and a drill driver.
STR-I asked my wife, the labor and delivery nurse, about this issue and to my surprise she said in Texas it is against the law to video or photograph any procedure. Visitors who are in the room for the birth must sign a piece of paper acknowledging this law. Although my wife’s hospital does not do this most hospitals have signs in the room that proclaim this law. Pictures may be taken of the patient but not the actual procedure or any of the medical staff.