Hasty C-Arm Positioning: A Recipe for Disaster

You have anesthetized an otherwise healthy man for a neurosurgical procedure. He is 54-yr-old, weighs 110kg, and is 6 feet tall. He is placed in a left lateral position. The surgeon is in a bit of a rush, and before the patient is appropriately secured, the surgeon moves the C-arm into position over the operating room (OR) table (Skyton 3; John Cudia & Assoc, Morgan Hill, CA). Suddenly, the table goes into a full left-lateral tilt without anyone touching the table control situated at the head of the table. You grab the patient’s head and the endotracheal tube and call for help. The surgeon and nurses, with outstretched hands, are preventing the patient from hitting the floor. They call for a gurney, and as you await its arrival the table is still moving in a full left-lateral tilt. What will you do?