A Fine Art Operating Room

This is the plastic surgery OR at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis MO circa mid 1930's. I have worked with many plastic surgeons and they were a zany lot. This surgeon even commissioned an artist named Gisella Loefler to decorate his room.

A number of sights grabbed my attention here. Why are there 2 scrub nurses? I suspect one must be a student. That instrument trolley is actually a precursor to what is a modern Mayo stand. Modern that is to Old Fools like me. In the 1930's operating rooms had a common back table which was loaded up with instruments for a full day of cases. The nurse selected instruments for the current case from the common supply on the back table. The back table was always covered between cases. Nurses and surgeons stayed put in the room until the day's caseload was done. None of that traipsing in and out of the room between cases like you whippersnapperns are so accustomed to. This eliminated extensive room turnover times and there was minimal delay between cases.

One of the scrub nurses has committed one of the 7 deadly sins of OR nursing; her gloved hands have been dropped below the waist band of her gown. For punishment, may I suggest damp dusting that overhead Operay multibeam shadowless light. This was difficult to do with traditional lighting, but imagine the fun in cleaning the nooks and crannies in that Operay

I have always been fascinated with OR lighting devices and I immediately recognized that Operay shadowless lighting system. Our very old unused (except for Dr. Slambow's office) operating room had one of these devices. I spent many happy hours fooling around with it and will post about it soon.