On Patient Safety: Surgical Complications Do Not Always Produce Poor Outcomes (Just Bad Feelings)

Excerpt

Consider this hypothetical: Your patient is 3 weeks postsurgery and no longer believes he is on “the road to recovery.” A road implies movement. Recovery implies progress. Your patient is experiencing none of those things at the moment. In fact, your patient remains in great discomfort, seemingly broken from a number of surgical complications. You discussed the possibility of surgical complications well before surgery, but your patient believed them unlikely enough that he still went ahead with the procedure. But now the pain is real. The prolonged hospitalization is real. The likelihood of a diminished quality of life is all too real. Your patient is suffering today, and tomorrow looks just as bleak. Is there any hope to achieve a good outcome in the end, or at least avoid a bad outcome? …