Putting my foot in it

I went to see the first patient on my theatre list this morning, on the day of surgery admission ward.
She was a fit and well young woman, whom I saw with her mother. There was nothing concerning in her history, and in fact it was her first ever anaesthetic. We signed the consent form together and then I got changed and went into theatre for our list briefing. The surgeon talked about his surgical plan, and then asked me who the woman was in our first patient’s room. It’s her mother, I said, confidently, and he looked at me oddly and said he thought she might have been the partner. Sure enough, when he checked the admission form and saw who the contact person was to ring afterwards, it was the girlfriend. I was mortified. How did the surgeon, an older white man, spot this when it didn’t even enter my head? And then of course I ran through the entire preop interview in my mind to see if I’d given myself (and my prejudices) away. Did I look in the partner’s direction when I asked if there was any family history of anaesthetic problems? I’m burning with shame even as I write this now. At least everything went well with her surgery and anaesthetic, and both she and her partner seemed happy when I went to see them after the procedure was over. Hopefully my faux pas wasn’t spotted and I’ve got away with my bourgeois assumptions. Will I ever learn??