I had an Australian registrar who I had a lot of time for, his name was Laurie and he was a great hit with the nurses. One night were we operating on a man who had a ruptured aortic aneurysm and the bleeding was profuse and I passed a suture beneath the artery and didn�t cut it until I was sure that the bleeding wouldn�t start again. Laurie stood opposite me with the forceps well above the incision, half asleep.
I cut the suture, but Laurie hadn�t noticed, still standing there holding the forceps on a thread that wasn�t attached to anything.
After about 20mins, I said
�Laurie, if you haven�t caught anything now, you never will, as I am closing up�
The theatre was in uproar old Laurie was so embarrassed.