Trusting the surgeon: A tornado from Bristol

Abstract

The latest edition of the Medical Journal of Australia presents an article by Stephen Bolsin, a British anaesthetist now working in Australia (Bolsin 1998). He describes how, as early as 1987, there was talk behind closed doors in the United Kingdom Department of Health about worrying results of paediatriccardiac surgery at a large public hospital in southern England, the Bristol Royal Infirmary. In 1988 Bolsin began work there. He had not heard the whispers, butsoon became concerned. He noted the long surgery times overall, and the long duration of the period during which the heart was off-line (and hence deprivedof oxygen). He suspected this could be associated with higher death rates and injuries (like brain damage).