Bizarre, International, Torts

Swedish Man Dies After Doctor Leaves For Lunch In Middle of Surgery

A 72-year-old man died after his anesthesiologist left for lunch in the middle of his surgery to have a tumor removed at the Lidköping hospital in Sweden. Not only did the doctor leave for lunch but soon after the head anesthesia nurse took lunch — leaving a nurse from the orthopedic ward who did not know how to operate the respirator. It turns out that the machine was turned off.


The operation began in January 2011 at 10:45 am, but as soon as the clock hit noon the doctor declared he was punching out for lunch.

The patient’s condition went chronic with hemorrhaging and his blood pressure started to drop after the departure of the doctor — roughly an hour into his lunch break. Efforts to reach the doctor at lunch were unsuccessful. By the time, the doctor returned the patient had been without oxygen for eight minutes. They never revived the man who had suffered irreparable brain damage. He did not die however for several weeks.

The National Board of Health and Welfare criticized the doctor’s actions. These cases often revive the debate over whether some countries like Sweden would benefit for a more robust tort system for personal injuries and malpractice as in the United States. It is of course a trade off. Litigation does add costs to medical care but not as much as malpractice. Our system is based not only on a belief in the right for patients to recover fully for such loss, but also that such litigation constitutes a critical deterrent for malpractice.

What do you think?

Source: The Local

Kudos: Richard Swenson

72 thoughts on “Swedish Man Dies After Doctor Leaves For Lunch In Middle of Surgery”

  1. Lotta,

    “lottakatz
    1, September 7, 2012 at 6:01 pm
    Mespo, I generally know sarcasm when I see it- we know our own.

    The great failing of the no-fault system is that there is no legal force majeure against the rules that compel patients to stay in the doctor-friendly system even if the physician’s acts amount to depraved indifference or manslaughter. That is what my search turned up anyway.”

    Explain please. No-fault=swedish system? legal force-majeure? rules that compel etc. (Patients have complete freedom to adequate explanation to their satisfaction. They are also completely free to get second opinions from independent medical sources at no cost to them. They are also free to change doctors at will. How many avail? No idea.)
    Doctor-friendly system (sweden? in what way?)

    looking forward to your reply with a guaranteed open mind.
    And thanks for your comments so far.

  2. Having read through all of the comments, mea culpa.

    After the first rabid attacks, to be expected, there came a neverending wave of thoughtful inquisitive and data filled comments.

    Thanks to: Nate, Lotta, Gurl, BettyKath and many others for a good job. I can’t judge your comments, neither on america or sweden as i have not informed myself.

    the judgement/compensation system was news to me, that it existed yes, but no more was known. We still have the question of disbarment and prosecution for criminal acts to define in the discussion.

    Just a reminder, there are always Jour (backup) within minutes away, and in emergencies you push a button and help arrives in seconds, competent help. The decisions and actual happenings are not clear. So no more can I say on the current case.

    Thanks to all for a discussion which did not attack each others throats. Is that due to something special about those who participated? Think about it. Yeah, I know, I was not nere. But it was some others I was considering.

  3. Gurl,

    “also…. we don’t have any kinds of cold medicine… NONE!!! no decongestant….. no cough syrup…. No Nyquil….”

    Try stopping smoking. And breathe the clean air, acquire healthy lungs.

    Guess I am lucky, seldom get colds, and even then need no OTC medicines.

    But then I stopped smoking after my first heart attack here.

  4. Blouise,

    I had at my businessman’s hotel in Kyoto access to either the American breakfast buffet or the Japanese.

    You write:
    “we are arranging shipping them some smoked salmon. Both these items are considered a delicacy, very hard to get and very expensive. go figure …”

    Well the standard alternative at the japanese breakfast buffet was smoked salmon pieces—–delicious. But admittedly the japanese don’t eat sashimi or sushi with salmon. They prefer tuna, absolutely hours old off the boat. Can it be found in America?

  5. JAG,
    Generally you are right, but maybe I can help.
    For bagels and other genuine kosher try Nybrogatan 19. Just got the address yesterday. Whew.
    For ingredients, try for small scale up-scale quality Kajsa Warg’s on Renstiernagatan. For as good as you can get in this duopolistic food chain world here, try ICA in Ringgen. For good bread, try the bread kiosk outside ICA
    on the other side of the Med Sushi place in the food court.

    For mexican food either become a member of the Mex-Swede club or import some ambitious Mexicans. The latter would make a fortune. Why the mex-swedes don’t is a good question,

    As for good food, we had to get help to discover olive oit and italian food. Now look at it. It is as it is. Sadly so. Not even the best expensive restaurants are exquisite.

    You came, you saw, and you suffer. Food and climate-wise.

  6. Lotta,

    The recipe please. I got tired of handrolling and didn’t think the taste worth it. The ones in the grocery store are just barely edible, if you like lots of gristle.

  7. If anyone comes back and wants to read my comment then go to the dem conv and illusion of democracy thread.
    I wrote it there as there seems greater likelihood that it would be seen there due to higher and more recent activity there. Regret I was busy on other threads that day and did not even read the headline subject in the email or I would have been here posthaste.

    And if you think you are going to get a whitewash of the Swedish medicine system, then think again. My own experiences speak of lies, incompetence. systemic ignoring of required practices, etc. in my history. And lots of good things too.

  8. Mespo, I generally know sarcasm when I see it- we know our own. 🙂

    The great failing of the no-fault system is that there is no legal force majeure against the rules that compel patients to stay in the doctor-friendly system even if the physician’s acts amount to depraved indifference or manslaughter. That is what my search turned up anyway.

  9. Nick, a lot of people go a lot a places for medical care:

    “Many Americans Going To Mexico For Health Care”

    http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/may/19/why-americans-choose-health-care-mexico/

    According to Wikipedia 700,000 Americans went to other countries for medical care in 2007:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_tourism

    This is an interesting part of the article, apparently some employers are providing health car e to employees from providers in other countries and picking up the whole tab:
    “Employer-sponsored health care in the US” is the sub-heading in the above wiki entry

  10. bettykath, Then why do people from all over the world come to the US for healthcare?

  11. Health care is one area where the profit motive needs to be removed. Remove all investors from the equation – insurance companies, hospitals.

    The Swedish system of a review/compensation panel for mistakes/malpractice would remove the need for malpractice insurance or at least make it more affordable.

    Decisions should be based on what’s best for the patient, not what the insurance will pay for or fear of a lawsuit.

    Our system is one of the worst, mainly due to the need for profit.

  12. Never agree to have surgery done on you on a Wednesday. That is known as doctors golf day. If things get delayed in the morning the somebcuk will be in a hurry to get out to the golf course and leave all sorts of items in your body cavity. And he will scrimp on stictches.

  13. Every system does appear to have some impressive blindspots, and I imagine Sweden’s death-by-malpractice rate pales in comparison to the US rate, but yeah… this is clearly negligent homicide. I am very pro-break, but when you’ve got someone cut open on the table, you go somewhere you can be reached if something happens, I don’t care if they’re reheating pizza in the cafeteria.

  14. LK,

    They are not so bad….. Try city chicken…… I think it’s a Michigan thing….not bad…..

  15. Tort? My vote is First Degree Manslaughter.

    Good thing this Dr. is not working in the Emergency Department, heaven forbid a heart attack patient is brought in when the doctor is on his beloved lunch break.

    I would agree with our Professor that having fear of malpractice liability might be an additional force in forstering better patient care. But, there is downside to this, when it becomes the preoccupation of hospital administrators, needless tests and lack of will power to perform more risky operations might actually harm patient care overall. If budgets are too tight, and made to be too lockstep because of paperwork nightmares of endless documentation to CYA the overall time with patients is lessened and there is a slightly more higher chance of problems slipping by.

    JustaGirlFromSeattle: I’ve only been to Sweden twice, both times were to Malmö. I didn’t eat until I returned to Copenhagen. Perhaps from what you wrote, it was better I didn’t dine there.

    Country with the worst food for me? Soviet Russia. The only good food I had was a ice cream treat consisting of a tube with a pushrod holding vanilla ice cream covered in a chocolate crust. (sold by vendors with pushcarts) Price 5 Kopeks. Fabulous.

    But also for 5 kopeks once could experience a most recoiling drink. Vending machines were all over town (probably this was in Leningrad) that dispensed water. You got to share in the community glass that sat atop the machine. The water came out a light rusty bronze color, just like that you received at the sink of the hotel. I mixed пепси кола and orange juice with the tap water just to make it seem drinkable.

  16. Thanks, lottakatz for seeing my point. The surgeon is the captain. If he can’t be sued why shouldn’t he go and everyone else leave as well?

  17. nate, feemeister,

    Thanks for the information. So the anesthesiologist probably had an ok by the surgeon to go to lunch, as did the anesthetist if a substitute was provided. Unfortunately, the qualifications of the substitute were not determined or were of no consequence. The surgeon screwed up.

  20. The story (whether through sloppy writing or reporting, poor translation, or something else) blames the anesthesiologist for no apparent reason.

    ————-

    Nate… MOST likely…. ALL of the above….

    The Local is terrible at translations… and tends to not get in depth info for their articles….

    in general, they translate the AP Wire Headline…. and usually, not very well…

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