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Wonderments of life

In this day and age of technology, a recent surgery has me wondering about something. I had arthroscopy surgery on my knee to remove a torn meniscus at Susan B. Allen Hospital in El Dorado because St. Luke Hospital does not offer it.

Anyway, as I was being prepped for the procedure, a nurse gave me a black marker and told me to write the word "yes" above the knee to be operated on.

OK. Mistakes do happen and who hasn't heard horror stories about the wrong leg being amputated, etc., etc., but I thought in this age of technology there would be some fancy contraption to identify the proper knee.

And then the surgeon came in and initialed my "yes" as an indicator that he, too, knew which knee was the right one.

Whew! That was a relief.

Gee, I wonder what I'll be charged for the use of that marker?

— SUSAN BERG

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