Close call

I knew the anesthesiologists' pre-op evaluations were important, but I got to see just how important they were last week. We had a man come in with multiple health problems who needed to have part of his foot amputated due to a non-healing wound. I went to go see him and do a quick physical exam. While I was there, the anesthesiologist (coincidentally, the same one who slept with my friend then never called her) came in to look at the patient's lab work and talk to him. The man takes coumadin ("blood thinner") and the lab work showed that his blood was way "too thin" for a safe surgery. The anesthesiologist went to talk to my doc (the surgeon) about cancelling the case because he was too high risk for bleeding. My doc was a little irritated about cancelling, but did agree. I was still filling out paperwork on the patient when my doc came to talk to him. He advised him to go to his doctor to get his blood thinner medicine right, then the surgery will be rescheduled for next week. I thought nothing more about the matter, and was honestly relieved that one case was cancelled that day, because as it was, I was already going to be at the hospital until 9pm. A couple of days later, my doc asked me if I remembered the patient who had his surgery cancelled. I told him I did asked why he was asking. He told me that the next day, one of the nurses called him and told him that right after the patient got home from his cancelled surgery, he dropped dead! Wow. I'm assuming it was cardiac related, but it's a weird feeling when someone dies right after you have examined them. One thing I know for certain: my doc escaped a major litigation nightmare by allowing the anesthesiologist to cancel the case. He should buy him a nice present. I have no doubt the patient would have died in the operating room during the administering of the anesthesia, and the family would have blamed it on the docs and probably sued them. It's weird though, I keep thinking of my examination of him and wondering if there was something I missed that would have hinted he was going to die in an hour. There wasn't. I specifically remember asking him if he had any new chest pain or shortness of breath. He said "no"...then he went home and died.