Sanjay Gets a Time Out
So here is the story:
Neurosurgeon and CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta was reporting live from the scene as he performed life-saving surgery on an 8-year-old girl who had barely survived a house’s collapse. But as he discovered months later, he had never operated on her at all. Instead, he cut into the skull of another girl.
I like Sanjay. He seems like a nice guy. I even met him once. The problem, no matter what he thinks, is that he is a journalist first and a doctor second. I know for a fact that during other media location trips he has been “called” into action more than once in neurosurgical cases and he doesn’t say no. The big question I have is whether he really is up to snuff on his skills? I mean how active in neurosurgery can he be with all his reporting? And did that affect his decision not to do a “time out” and figure out whose head he was opening up in Nepal to make sure everything was kosher? Making this kind of mistake in the US would have ended him but to be fair, this was in post earthquake riddled Nepal and he was kind of forced into action.
He gets a pass but it looks like he needs to let the active neurosurgeon part of him go. Just my humble opinion.
Agree…even in an urgent situation in a Third World OR a surgeon needs to identify his patient properly! I would think that Dr. Gupta is making enough from CNN that he could give up neurosurgery, no matter how hard he trained to do it. I wouldn’t want him in my head.