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March 21, 2006

Pushing All the Wrong Buttons

You have to say this much for socialized medicine — it makes for interesting news stories, like this one from England:

A baby boy died after an untrained doctor pressed the wrong button on his bypass machine because it was a less "horrid" colour than the other, an inquest heard yesterday.

Four-month-old Thomas Smith was on a heart and lung bypass machine when Simon McGuirk, a cardiac surgical registrar, accidentally turned it off.

Mr McGuirk said that he did not know whether to press the orange or blue buttons to restart the machine, so opted for the blue. It sent the machine into reverse, sucking blood from Thomas's body. He died a short time later.

The silver lining is that everyone waiting in line to use the bypass machine can move up a step.

Hat tip: Wiggins

Posted by Van Helsing at March 21, 2006 1:15 PM