Stories from the OR: Ex lap

So a couple weeks ago, I was doing an emergency exploratory laparotomy for a perforated bowel with a resident. The patient was actually not that sick, but this type of case is usually a bigger case. We prepared the following: awake arterial line, videoscope, hot line, central line, and began transfusing blood, etc.

As we were getting the room ready, I began my little routine…