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A now-settled lawsuit in the US revealed that a patient died during surgery, allegedly while surgeons played music bingo, with vital signs alarms reportedly turned off
The incident occurred on 3 February 2023, when 56-year-old Bart Writer was admitted to InSight Surgery Center in Colorado for a cataract surgery. Due to the procedure's standard nature, medical staff told his wife, Chris, that she could leave and they would contact her once it was done.
She later received a call from the surgeon, Dr Starck Johnson, asking her to meet him in the parking lot.
When they met, he informed her that her husband had died from cardiac arrest. While the death was initially ruled an accident, Chris later received a crucial tip from another doctor, one that would cast light on what really happened that day.
The surgeons were reportedly playing music bingo during the procedure
At 12.48pm on the day of the incident, anaesthesiologist Dr Michael Urban administered anaesthesia to Bart. A surgical drape was then placed over him, exposing only the eye that was to be operated on.
The surgery began at 1.05pm, and during the procedure, both Dr Johnson and Dr Urban allegedly played music bingo, a practice reportedly considered routine in the operating theatre.
The game involved songs playing on Dr Urban's phone, which the doctors would categorise by artist name; for instance, a Bee Gees track would count under the letter 'B'. They continued playing until they completed a 'BINGO'.
Chris later learned from nurses that the surgical team would frequently disable the audible alarms on machines monitoring patients' vital signs. The monitors themselves were positioned in such a way that only Dr Urban had a direct view of them.
With the added distraction of music bingo, the muted alarms, and Bart's body fully draped, no one initially noticed his skin turning blue from a lack of oxygen.
It took operating room staff a critical 11 minutes to finally notice the abnormal vital signs, by which time it was already too late to save the patient.
Chris mourns her husband's untimely death
She told 9NEWS her husband's sudden death left her in shock, lamenting that it "just didn't make sense".
She said Bart led an active lifestyle, recalling how they "skied every weekend" and often went cycling and hiking together.
"My son is without his best friend. I'm without Bart, my guy.
"Yeah, it makes me angry. It makes me sad. I'm just disgusted. I'm just infuriated," she added.
