Uncanny X-Men #413: A Medical Review
May 24th, 2004
Uncanny X-Men #413 Annie’s Moving Story
writer, Chuck Austen
penciler, Sean Phillips
In Uncanny X-Men #413, the X-Men return to the mansion after a battle with Black Tom. Iceman refuses to let anyone but Professor X sew up his wound. Which is a shame, because Professor X makes several mistakes:
- No gloves. This is a big infection control no-no. For the sake of both Prof X and Iceman, gloves should be worn. Sure, mutants cannot get AIDS (and was that ever stated before this issue), but there’s still Hepatitis C and other bloodborne diseases. (And did he wash his hands and clean the wound?)
- Straight needle and thread. Straight needles that require threading have not been used in surgery for years. Tissue is hard enough to sew through without worrying about the thread falling off. Straight needles are also very hard to sew tight sutures with. Nowdays, sutures come pre-packaged attached to a curved needle.
These errors should probably be attributed to the artist and not the writer.
For those unfamiliar with what suture looks like, click on more for pictures.
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| This is Ethilon, a synthetic suture similar to nylon fishing line. It is size 4-0, which is about the thickness of a human hair. | Note the small curved needle that allows for tight suturing of incisions or lacerations. |
May 25th, 2004 at 7:36 pm
Is Professor X even qualified to be stitching anyone’s wounds?
May 25th, 2004 at 10:55 pm
Probably not. As far as I recall, he has a PhD, not an MD. On the other hand, it doesn’t take much skill to suture up wounds, just practice. Many ERs (and the military) use nurses, physician assistants, or med-techs to sew. It is fun, though.
May 25th, 2004 at 11:52 pm
My experience with being stitched up sort of contradicts your fun assessment. Then again, you may be speaking wholly from the side doing the sewing. (Insert emoticon here.)
May 26th, 2004 at 12:18 am
Good point. Being the stitcher is fun, while being the stitchee is not. I was both once, which was a weird sensation, knowing that I was stitching up my arm, but being unable to feel a thing due to the anesthetic.
November 15th, 2007 at 1:07 am
I would think that prof. X could use his telepathy to get the medical knowledge he needs from someone who has it and he could use telekinesis to prevent any of the other problems from occurring. Psychic powers are after all second only to time travel for patching plot holes.
February 21st, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Professor X could indeed probe the minds of proper medical personnel, but he does not have telekenetic powers.
November 12th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
He uses telepathy to tell disease organisms to piss off. :D
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