Seattle TImes

[Oh boy]

Nice assassination attempt at Johnny Delshaw http://projects.seattletimes.com/2017/qu...are/talia/

[dispo]

This is a strange piece of "investigative journalism." There are few facts presented here other than Delashaw participated in the surgery with fellows in a manner pretty familiar to any of us in an academic teaching hospital, which is surely disclosed in the consent form. While it's certainly a tragedy, I'd love if someone could explain what if anything is wrong with the treatment she received. I don't understand where the negligence charges are coming from, and my assumption based on what's presented here is that the hospital just settled because it was easier or more financially prudent than fighting a case it seems they would win. Unless of course there are internal documents that suggest greater negligence than what's presented here. I don't wanna side with the guy just because he's a neurosurgeon and it's a neurosurgery forum, but this piece was about 95% narrative of an unfortunate death and suggestions of negligent practice in "OR factories" and 5% relevant facts.

The most interesting part is the reference to internal documents from colleagues allegedly expressing concern about how much he was not in the OR while letting fellows perform surgeries, but again, they just reference it and don't quote any of these documents, which is strange and basically amounts to "we read this, trust us."

[Guest]

Complication rates are a very subjective thing. Say you have your average surgeon doing 300 cases a year with a complication rate of 5%. That's 15 patients. Say you have a high volume surgeon doing 1,500 cases a year with a complication rate of 1%. That is also 15 patients. Now if they are both at the same percentage, 3%, the actual numbers are 9 and 45. Of course the surgeon with 45 complications seems higher, but the rate is no different

[Guest]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washing...g-surgery/

[Guest]

He's stepped down as chair:
http://www.beckersspine.com/spine/item/3...-know.html

[Guest]

Aaaaand he's done