prisoners in the OR

Had a prisoner as a patient the other day. It was very surreal as always. having two armed guards sitting next to the patient instead of family members. Also the leg chains have some sort of surreal quality to them also. A fellow faculty has the habit of looking up these patients on the Department of Justice homepage. Apparently you can just look up anyone with a criminal record or is currently in prison. I prefer not to know. I think I would be a better person than to let the knowledge of his crimes affect his care, but I prefer not to leave that to chance. The man seemed very nice. Also weird is the insistence that they sit outside the OR for the entire surgical procedure. Like they're going to get off the table and run out while they're under general anesthesia.

A couple of years ago I had a patient undergoing cardiac surgery he was in his mid-seventies. Apparently he had been in prison for twenty or more years. He was a pretty feeble man... still those guards were there sitting outside the OR for the entire case. I really don't know what he did if he had been in prison for that long. He also seemed very nice.