SHAKOPEE, Minnesota-

When I was 18 I had to have an appendectomy. Not everyone has had the pleasure of having their appendix removed, but let me tell you it’s no fun at all, and no one is immune to the possibility. I remember it like it was yesterday. The evening before I thought I had eaten something bad because the whole night I felt like I had food poisoning. The next morning I went to the doctor and it was determined I had an appendicitis and my appendix had to be removed immediately. Even though appendectomies are no fun and are a pain in the ass for the person suffering, they are quite common. It is estimated that about 7% of the United State and European populations will have to have an appendectomy. So needless to say appendectomies are quite routine.

I don’t remember too much about the doctor that removed mine, just that he was a nice Irish guy and I knew I wanted it out of me, probably somewhat like a pregnant woman feels in her last stages of labor. After it was all said and done, he had done such a fine job that I was playing college baseball again only seven days later.

In Shakopee, Minnesota a patient went in for a very routine appendectomy. Two days later the hospital pathologist was examining the removed appendix and realized that the appendix was not an actual appendix at all, but a piece of fatty tissue. Not coincidentally the patient had still been complaining of pain and fever, and given the new information was ordered to immediately return to the hospital so the real appendix could be removed. At that point the phantom appendix had already burst causing the patient to spend an additional 11 days in the hospital due to complications of the second operation. Hmmmmm, I wonder if this incompetent doctor did his medical residency removing body parts from the famous child’s game Operation?

The Moral of the story: Many, if not most doctors are competent and wonderful, but some doctors just plain suck.

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