The Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Inquest Report

 

 

Forthcoming cases

The meeting also dealt with forthcoming cases. The minutes stated that:

The Committee agreed in principle to continue to recommend that the Cardiac Surgical Program continue with cases at the intermediate level of complexity and/or risk. It was strongly recommended that cases not [underlined in original] be vetted at the level of the Committee. In spite of this, a specific case was indeed discussed. This was the case of a patient with an aortico-pulmonary window and an interrupted aortic arch who would require a circulatory arrest procedure which is essentially extra-vascular. It was the consensus of the Committee that this case represented the high risk end of the spectrum and that at the present time this be deferred. (Exhibit 20, Document 278G)

Giddins and Odim argued in favour of undertaking this operation and were opposed by McNeill. She believed that undertaking a high-risk case violated the decision to move slowly to doing moderate-risk cases. McNeill testified that Odim and Giddins felt that the program was losing the opportunity to undertake an 'interesting' case. By 'interesting', McNeill said, she understood Giddins and Odim to mean one that would be challenging to the team and develop its skills.

The minutes state that it was decided that the committee would continue to discuss cases that had been performed and monitor the cardiac team. Meetings were to be every two weeks rather than weekly. It was further agreed that in one month's time, at the September 7 meeting, consideration would be given to moving the program to full activity.

 

 

Current Home - Table of Contents - Chapter 7 - Forthcoming cases
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Previous Post-operative care
Section 1 Chapter 1 - Introduction to the Issues
  Chapter 2 - Pediatric Cardiac Issues
  Chapter 3 - The Diagnosis of Pediatric Heart Defects and their Surgical Treatment
  Chapter 4 - The Health Sciences Centre
Section 2 Chapter 5 - Pediatric Cardiac Surgery in Winnipeg 1950-1993
  Chapter 6 - The Restart of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery in 1994
January 1, 1994 to May 17, 1994
  Chapter 7 - The Slowdown; May 17 to September 1994
  Chapter 8 - Events Leading to the Suspension of the Program
September 7, 1994 to December 23, 1994
  Chapter 9 - 1995 - The Aftermath of the Shutdown
January to March, 1995
Section 3 Chapter 10 - Findings and Recommendations
Appendix 1 - Glossary of terms used in this report
Appendix 2 - Parties to the Proceedings and counsel
Appendix 3 - List of witnesses and dates of testimony
Diagrams
Tables
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