Where his Gall toward Eisenhower Came From: A surgical error

Sometimes surgical errors change people's lives in odd ways. Indeed, sometimes the lives of many people are affected--though we don't learn about it for quite a long time. One example appeared in this month's Atlantic magazine, 50 years after the fact.

Anthony Eden, the long-time Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, underwent an operation to remove his gall bladder, and the surgery was botched. For the rest of his life he was plagued by the after-effects; he needed four later operations to undo the damage.

During a crisis in the Middle East in 1956, Britain reasserted its colonial interests in the Suez Canal, joining France and Israel in fighting the Egyptians. Pres. Eisenhower tried to get Eden and the British to withdraw. Angrily Eisenhower demanded in a phone call, "Have you gone out of your mind?!" The answer in the Atlantic article: "Probably yes: Eden had undergone a botched operation which had nicked his bile duct and was suffering from what might politely have been called 'stress.'" In describing the ill effects of the earlier surgery, one of Eden's later surgeons wrote that Eden had a fever of 106 degrees at the time, and concluded that he was subject to recurrent fevers and postoperative disability at important times in his career and during international crises. The surgical error that had occurrred in 1953 apparently affected the lives of British, French, Israeli, and Egyptian soldiers, and their families, three years later.

Read another story of a surgical error affecting a famous ruler or read Christopher Hitchens' article, "Imperial Follies," Atlantic, January/February 2007.

A Medical Student Victim: A surgical error

When I was in the first semester of my freshman year of college, I had laser hair removal done on my upper lip by my dermatologist, and the laser severely burnt my skin. I stupidly trusted my doctor, who told me that my skin may be a little pink after the procedure, but it should fade by that evening. Of course the fine print said "scarring, death, etc." as it always does. So of course I was aware of the "risks". But every release form warns of the worst, doesn't it? And I didn't fail to disclose the use of photosensitizing agents, tanning, or medical conditions; nor did I fail to disclose a propensity to develop keloids (a special type of scar which results in an overgrowth of tissue). I had no idea I had such a propensity. What upsets me is not that I was burnt (which probably was faulty laser settings, due to the fact that the procedure hurt BADLY. And I have hereditary pancreatitis, so I know pain. This laser HURT. I almost asked her not to do the other side!)

The wound healed as a keloid scar, and my dermatologist paid for cortisone injections, which were administered by a local plastic surgeon, and then for removal of the keloid. I had to treat the scar night after night after night, had to endure painful injections and more than one surgery.

Advice to patients: Be sure to research the risks of surgery yourself, beforehand. And try to find a doctor like the one Blogger Kim hopes to be—-one who knows how patients feel, perhaps from their own experience as a victim.

Read another story of surgical error.