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Surgeries On Friday Are More Frequently Fatal

Posted by timothy on from the saturday-sunday-happy-days dept.

antdude writes "A British Medical Journal (BMJ) research report says that 'Surgeries on Friday Are More Frequently Fatal ... compared to those who opt for really bad Mondays, Britons who have a planned surgery on a Friday are 44 percent more likely to die. And the few patients who had a leisurely weekend surgery saw that number jump to 82 percent. The skeleton staff working on weekends might be to blame.'"

4 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Car Analogy by amiga3D · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's like how cars made on Friday have more defects. People are tired after a long week and just want the day to end so they can get the weekend party started.

    1. Re:Car Analogy by JWW · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Perhaps since its a Friday, surgeons actively avoid scheduling easy, routine surgeries. The surgeries that would take place would then be more risky emergency surgeries. The percentage number of fatalities would be higher as a result.

  2. Statistics can be misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    On Question Time Anna Soubry (Under-Secretary of State for Health) said that some doctors schedule more at-risk surgeries on a Friday because then they will be able to deal with the patient during the weekend when they don't have surgeries planned. You do need to be careful when you want to find explanations for statistics like these. Your immediate reaction can easily be wrong.

  3. Re:Simple reason by nedlohs · · Score: 3, Insightful

    By definition "elective surgery" is something that "can wait until Monday". So no.