Gravity acts on needles and they bounce

I am sure there is a technical name for the vectors at play when there is an act of gravity in an operating room.

Oops is a hated word in the OR.

An oops followed by where did the needle go is worse.

An operating room is of necessity a constrained place. The smallest I ever worked in was 12 feet by 13 feet and the largest is usually an oddly shaped soccer pitch sized. No, not really, but when it takes your circulator more than 10 seconds to cross the OR, the room is too big.

The OR table with patient and team standing next to it can be 8 feet by 5 feet.

A dropped needle can end up clear across the room near the door.

Sometimes a dropped needle can end up in the cuff of the mayo stand cover.

Sometimes a dropped needle can end up under the operating table.

Sometimes a dropped needle can end up

Definitely a dropped needle can end up where it does not belong.

And the shenanigans we go through to find a needle are great.

The first thing to do is to do a sharp and needle count on the field, the mayo, and the backtable. Maybe the missing needle was mislaid.

The next thing to do is to get reinforcements; call out to the desk for help.

The next thing to do is to get the flat magnet on a stick. This is used to sweep along the floor, in hopes that the lost needle will be stuck to it because its a magnet, and needles are metal. There are magnetic attractions involved.

And let the search begin.

The surgeon will start by stepping back, and peering at the floor. They might scuff their feet at the floor, seeing if they can get the needle to appear. They will pull at the drapes from the level of the bed and peer there too.

Oh, and all OR floors are mottled or dappled in appearance. The better to hide blood and body fluids.

You know what else like to hide in the shadows?

A dropped needle.

And sometimes a needle is NEVER found.

Kind of like the sock that disappears in the dryer.

Or a door to the dropped needle pocket universe.

There is a vast mountain of dropped needles in this pocket universe.

One place it is not is in the patient.

Or stuck in a team member.

At least not yet.