As I was sitting here early this morning at 5:30AM preparing for a day of plastic surgery sorting out implants and patient records, there was a peculiar silence and then a noise which caught my attention. It made me sit right up and listen…and then a subtle vibration began. And then the whole building shook for about what seemed six to eight seconds….followed by what must have a small aftershock which slowly faded away over the next 20 seconds or so. A rare earthquale indeed here in Indianapolis.
The last earthquake appreciably felt here in Indianapolis was back in 1987 if I remember correctly. It may have been about the same magnitude. (5.0 or so on the Riechter scale) Infrequent as they are, earthquakes do occur here in Indiana….go down to the Indiana State Museum and check out the eathquakes that have occurred from 1955 – 2000 here in the Midwest on one of their computer displays. The epicenter of this one was over in southern Illinois but epicenters have certainly occurred in Indiana as well.
What do earthquakes and plastic surgery have in common? They are similar in at least one aspect…infrequent events do occur in plastic surgey as well. I am speaking specifically to untoward outcomes and complications from surgery. Just like you think an earthquale couldn’t happen here, most patients never feel that any complications for surgery can happen to them. Fortunately, major complications from plastic surgery are about as uncommon as earthquakes here in Indiana.
Dr Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana