I ended up moving to New York to avoid it happening again. I’ve had six surgeries on that wrist with no luck, but at least I’m protected from mistakes up here.

I ran into this in Oklahoma. A surgeon permanently screwed up my dominant hand. Every lawyer I spoke to said damages were capped at $150k (dropped to $75k a few years later), and the cost to go to court was more than that. I lost everything and couldn’t do anything about it. Fuck tort reform.

I woke up during surgery once. I couldn’t move, but my eyes were open and I was fully aware. I saw my anesthesia person happily chatting with the others in the room. It took him a few minutes to notice I was awake and turn a knob that put me back under. If I hadn’t had a nerve block done in my shoulder, I would have felt everything. I’ve had 11 surgeries and it’s a major fear of mine that another person will do this to me while not nerve blocked (like on an abdominal surgery I have coming up).

It really blows my mind how casually someone can take a job that important.