What happens to a surgeon when a patient dies on his or her operating table?
Speaking with one of my friends about this very topic. He told me that counter-intuitively one of the best surgeons in our area had one of the lowest statistical records of saves on the table. Why? Because he took all the worst cases that most doctors would not touch. Patients who were desperate and understood they would die soon and or suffer much pain and debility before they died. Many of his patients had very poor chances but understood the risk. Sadly many would die in surgery.But to the question of what happens when a doctor’s mistakes result in a death??? They are reviewed on each case and have to go before a board of their peers to explain why. Usually this means extensive retraining in the area that may have resulted in the death. Doctors are only human and unfortunately they do make mistakes and when they do it can cost you a life. The only silver lining is that those doctors become extremely good at never making those mistakes again. Some of the best doctors have had to grapple with the hard knock education of having ended a life because of their mistakes. Ironically having ended a life makes for some of the most conscientious and highly skilled doctors.If a doctor has had too many failures that his supervisors or peers deemed to be within normal control, he can be removed from his position or lose his license but this is not a very common thing.Few people study their whole life to get to that position and throw it all away. With any profession if you have large enough numbers you will have a few rotten apples.