An 84-year-old patient came in for a vision-saving surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, where Tom Durick, MD, works as an anesthesiologist and assistant professor. “He was blind in one eye and trying to regain some sort of vision in his other eye,” says Dr. Durick, noting that this already high-stakes surgery was exacerbated by the fact that the man had traveled from far away and had already canceled the procedure several times because he couldn’t get a ride. Just when it looked like the patient was finally able to undergo the critical procedure, he told the nurse he drank some orange juice at four in the morning because he was a diabetic. “It was an eight o’clock case, so everyone was in an uproar,” says Dr. Durick. “They thought we had to cancel the surgery.”

Before that happened, however, Dr. Durick began peppering the patient with questions. Why did you drink the juice? My blood sugar was low. How could you tell? I was shaking. Pulp or no pulp? No pulp, regular orange juice. How much? Four ounces. Eventually, Dr. Durick turned the patient on his right side, scanned his belly with the handheld ultrasound device he always keeps on him and saw the patient’s belly was completely empty. “The surgical team was stunned because they thought they’d have to cancel the case,” says Dr. Durick. “The patient ended up having a successful surgery.”