First of all, I'm speaking as an engineer, not as a lawyer or a health care provider. (I really am an engineer.) And I am not commenting on the legalities involved, or even if anyone should be doing this procedure.


At 5:03 PM -0500 3/26/2003, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>Does anyone ever fill a glove with crushed ice and use it as an ice pack?
>That's using an item for which it is not intended.  Has anyone ever used a
>tongue blade as a splint for a broken finger?  That's using a device for
>which it wasn't intended.
These are lovely analogies, and irrelevant to the question. With neither the glove nor the tongue blade are you altering the device. They are being used as manufactured, just not as the manufacturer intended.

>I'm certain that as a group of 3000+ we could come
>up with lots of other devices in the hospital that we use other than what
>they were intended for.

Good idea! Surely there are examples (other than the cut off syringe) where a device is physically altered and used for a different purpose.

>
>Please note that the "approved" Nipple Everter is nothing more than a syringe
>with a silicone gizmo on one end.  No different in function whatsoever than
>the "homemade" syringe.  Just more expensive.

And specifically designed for the task at hand. I can (and have) used screwdrivers as chisels and pry bars, but the more expensive tools made for the task do work better. And the Evert-It does have the "silicone gizmo" (what is it called?) which (presumably) makes it work better than just the end of the syringe.

Dave Vaklyes

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