Brian Johnson
Every year I get a nice calendar from my car insurance company. Usually, each month features a landscape shot from the United States.
It’s a nice gesture by the company — it makes me think of my grandparents, whose AAA calendar, which always hung next to the rotary phone in their kitchen back in Roselle Park, N.J.
So my interest was piqued when, surfing the FDA website (yes, I surf the FDA website), I came across the “Medical Device Safety Calendar.”
What I found was more than interesting. Actually, terrifying might be a more appropriate term.
The calendar is a safety reminder for healthcare professionals about the dangers of the misuse of medical devices. Each month features a different, real-life case study of a procedure gone horribly awry, illustrated using anatomical, expressionless dummies.
The illustration here depicts “IV tubing erroneously connected to nebulizer.” The patient aspirated a quantity if IV fluid straight into the lungs. Fortunately, that person survived. Tragically, that’s not always the case.
But words can’t really do it justice. So take a look for yourself (PDF).