135. Takeo Four: In the Spotlight

Two scrub assists, each ready to go

Yesterday we had two tables set up in the same room (a common practice for overseas teams); it's a large room and although sometimes a bit noisy and hectic, works out.  Infection control freaks will object but for the low risk (infection-wise) procedures that we are doing, this is not a deal-breaker.

The room has just one overhead spotlight, but otherwise well lit, and I have my head spotlight--an item researched and bought for me by my son.  Similar spotlights are found from Costco to REI, for night bikers, hikers or campers, but adaptable to the OR, though my light has the advantage of being more focussed. So I didn't mind the overhead light being used by the other table. I was overoptimistic: the first case (see yesterday), didn't have the best lighting and I initially thought just wasn't up to the task at hand.

Then a "duh" moment.  My batteries! Almost dead. So I waited for the other table to finish (just a few minutes) and had the overhead light moved over.

Later I replaced the batteries and noted that the dead batteries were the original, now a couple of years old; with new batteries I had all the light I needed.

Lesson: start trips with new batteries or newly charged batteries in spotlights, cameras, whatever.