NORMAL LIFE: One Hell Of A Woman's Problem!

As part of my work, I had to spend a morning in a Maternity Hospital. When you think of a Maternity Hospital, you tend to think of babies being born, premature babies being cared for and happy parents leaving the hospital with newborns in their arms.

When I went to the hopsital yesterday at 7am, however, nothing could have prepared me for witnessing a hysterectomy! Yes, I actually saw a very frightened woman in her late 40s get wheeled into the Operating Room and, after her hypnosis level was deep enough following an epidural and a strong anaesthetic, the radio was switched on and the staff chatted as they performed a laparotomy.

I watched the monitors and observed how the medical products were used in the Operating Room, until I was alerted to the uterus which had been removed from deep in the woman's abdomen. It look like a heart (see blog entry, Trust Me, I'm A Surgeon, dated 24 May '06), about the size of a couple of bread rolls. While a normal, healthy uterus weighs approximately 100 grams - so I was told - this one weighed in at a hefty 667 grams. Crikey!

Again, I was amazed at how these people do what they do for living! For certain, every surgeon's contribution to society is enormous, but with ever increasing emphasis on cost, one can't help but think what is it all for? Why do we, as humans, harbour a desire to challenge each and every disease that Mother Nature challenges us with?

I've always believed that the affliction of disease is the world's, nature's or God's way of controlling the population, but with Healthcare being so efficient these days (except for Britain's NHS perhaps!), technology is surely keeping people alive for longer. It will be interesting, then, to see how governments handle healthcare in the future.