Review: The Bleeding Edge
Time for another movie review...but this one is a documentary.
”The Bleeding Edge” on Netflix is a medical documentary about the dangers of medical devices that are implanted in the body or medical devices that are used in surgical procedures and things go very wrong. (I need to warn you that you should have already eaten and food digested before embarking upon this one. We didn’t know....)
Without spoiling the documentary, my husband and I learned a bunch of things that we had no idea were going on within the medical device world. We also saw the dramatic effects of devices that are supposed to be used for fixing problems cause so many more problems. One lady was rolled into the surgery prep room and when the nurse asked about previous surgeries, the lady began to go down the list - surgery for implant, surgery to remove implant, surgeries to remove fragments of broken implant, surgery to remove more of the metal that had lodged somewhere else. By the time the lady finished, all the nurse could say was “Oh my goodness!” They even featured a doctor on the documentary who had to have a hip replacement, and because of the dramatic toxic effects he was experiencing, they had to replace the hip replacement with something much safer.
We turned to each other multiple times and said that we will have to be super watchful if it ever comes to a point that we will need those things.
This documentary will shake you to your core, teach you some important things, and make you angry for these people affected. The documentary did its job when it came to opening our eyes.
Queue it up on Netflix if you have a free moment.
This sounds alarming! My neighbour just had a hip replacement. We haven't talked about it, but the surgery is done under local anaesthetic. The story is that they want to check you can move your toes (I'm not sure how true that is). It is amazing that we can be patched up and maintain a good quality life for longer, but I guess we also need to have a watchful eye.
It was very alarming @shanibeer! What scared me was that the process for approval of a medical device was WAY too simple, and the garbage devices can get through with no problems. 😳
That sounds like a really interesting documentary @mrscwin. I often wonder about the safety of those devices, but what are the alternative? Technology moves fast but, alas, not fast enough.
It really was @cryptocariad! There really is not much of an alternative - we just have to make sure we do our research beforehand and make sure we are getting the best, not the junk that was surprisingly approved because of who they know. 😳