Why We Need More Non-Ambiguous Terms For Left and Right
By
Staten Island, NY Posted: 3/13/2016 1:00:00 AM
If I told you there was something on the left side of your car... You might ask "My left or yours?".
Every now and then we read about people who've had operations done on the wrong side of their body. If you do a simple web search for "surgeon operated on wrong side", you'll get countless results because the doctor's often don't make it clear which side they're referring to.
For example:
CNN-Patients, beware of wrong-side surgeries
Quote:
According to a 2006 study looking at the frequency of surgical errors in the United States, each year there could be as many as 2,700 mistakes where a surgery is performed on the wrong body part or the wrong patient. That's about seven per day.
INVESTIGATION: Surgeon v. Surgeon in wrong-side surgery casey
Quote:
When asked about that consent paperwork Dr. Smith admits there is no mention of the left-sided approach in the consent because he said it's typically left out.
Dr. Smith said his staff often leaves out the words "right" and "left" because they are confusing to patients and staff.
Lawsuit accuses surgeon of operating on wrong side of woman's brain
Who's to Blame for Wrong-Site Surgery?
There are countless other examples, but the only way to prevent them is for each industry to use non-ambiguous terms for left and right. In the nautical world, they never refer to ship locations as left-side or right side. They say Port and Starboard, and the automotive industry uses the terms "Driver Side" vs "Passenger Side", which solves a lot of problems when you ask a mechanic to replace a tire or lightbulb.
Joe Crescenzi, Founder
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