HOUSTON, TX – Dr. Henry Witherspoon, a prominent general surgeon in the Houston area, began foaming at the mouth in anger, after an X-ray machine was not immediately available 2.3 seconds after he requested an X-ray in the operating room.
According to eyewitnesses, a needle count was performed at the end of the operation and one needle came up missing. As per hospital protocol, a flat panel X-ray was ordered. A long 2.3 seconds passed before Dr. Witherspoon became irate that the X-ray machine was not present yet.
“Where is X-ray!! I called for them to be here!” screamed Dr. Witherspoon. Foam was reported to be actually oozing out the side of his surgical mask.
X-ray tech Rose McDonald received the call at 3:15 p.m. to come to operating room 13. McDonald quickly finished processing her last film and left the medicine ward 48 seconds later after putting down the phone.
She pushed her 500-lb. X-ray machine over 400 yards and 3 floors with extreme precision avoiding multiple gurneys, IV poles, and doctors texting. 2 minutes and 24 seconds later, after grabbing a mask and head cover en route, she pushed her machine through the doors of operating room 13.
“Finally X-ray is here! About damn time!” fired off Dr. Witherspoon with foam pouring out of his facemask. “I called for you eons ago!”
McDonald didn’t even bat an eye. She told GomerBlog that this is all too routine. “This happens at least once a day no matter where we go. If it isn’t the OR complaining, it is the ICU. If it isn’t the ICU, it is the ER. I don’t think people realize this 500-lb. machine doesn’t just appear magically out of the blue.”
“I read an anesthesia article last week that made me laugh,” said McDonald. “It talked about how everybody always calls anesthesia providers, anesthesia. I can relate. My name around here is X-ray, or better yet, Finally X-ray is here!”
