Got this message from my surgeon this morning:
When I got to the hospital, I explained our hour late start to the patient and his wife by saying the surgeon had had a busy night on call, and I’m sure they’d rather he was well rested before doing his surgery, which they both agreed with.
Later, after I’d got the patient off to sleep, the surgeon and the theatre nurse started complaining about whichever stupid ward nurse had blabbed to the patient, who had apparently said to the surgeon as soon as he saw him, and with great anxiety, that he had heard the surgeon had been awake and operating all night, and was very tired. I was most dismayed and quite tempted to keep my mouth shut and let the mysterious ward nurse take the blame, but in the spirit of open disclosure I explained what I’d said. I was most aggrieved to be so misinterpreted though. To top it all off, the surgeon never had to go into the hospital all night – it was just phone calls. Mind you, he did get one at that horror hour of 3 am – a killer if you want to get back to sleep for an early start.