The second-floor operating rooms at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania, are numbered sequentially — except when you get to what should be operation room (OR) 13. It’s OR M. The M doesn’t stand for Maternity or any other specialty. Rather in this high-tech, state-of-the art healthcare center, it’s there to ward off bad juju and evil spirits.
“Just as taller buildings usually don’t have a 13th floor or hotels don’t have a room 13, it revolves around the common superstition of the unlucky nature of number 13,” said a hospital spokesperson.
During the pandemic, the public was told repeatedly that modern medicine is science-based. But when I started talking to surgeons and other physicians for this article, I uncovered something decidedly unscientific.
In ORs and emergency rooms (ERs), small-town doctor’s offices, and mega hospitals, there’s a measure of dread before full moons and Friday the 13th, and no one dares utter the Q word (as in, “It sure is quiet today.”) That would risk bringing the wrath of the medical gods, and you’d earn the reputation of being a jinx or “black cloud.” Likewise, the songs “Stairway to Heaven” or “Another One Bites the Dust” will never be heard in any waiting room, elevator, or OR.
Indeed, when it comes to superstitions and rituals in medicine, it seems everyone has a story or a belief. …
A 2-Hour Ritual
Carmen Fong, MD, a colorectal surgeon in New York City, had a presurgical ritual that took her nearly 2 hours to complete. “I’d wake up at the same time every day, pack two hard-boiled eggs and a thermos of coffee in my small leather bag, walk to work via the same route, and swipe into the preop area while waving hi to the front desk,” she recounted. “I’d talk to the patient, sign the consent with the same ballpoint pen, go upstairs to my office, change into my scrubs [same cap and Danskos], then turn on my computer, and take a sip of coffee before heading back down to the OR. I’d always remove my badge and place it near the nurses’ workstation, then put on the patient’s SCDs [sequential compression devices] myself. I’d hold the oxygen mask while telling the patient, ‘See you later.’ Never ‘It will be okay’ or ‘Have a good sleep.’ Always ‘See you later.’ ”
Dr. Fong did this for 5 years prior to more than a thousand surgeries. She did it because it made her feel calm and in control, which translated to more successful operations. “It never failed me.”
Wonder Woman Clogs
Anureet Bajaj, MD, a plastic surgeon in Oklahoma City, wore Wonder Woman clogs in the OR for years because “they made me feel stronger, and my surgeries went better.” She’s also very specific about her OR playlist; “it must be ‘80s music.” And for a time, she wore a friendship bracelet that one of her employees made to commemorate getting through a particularly hard day. “If I forgot it, my heart sank, and my anxiety rose,” she said. “Wearing it gave me security and confidence that the day would go well.”