Learning About Hernias

I always have this nightmare scenario in mind when I'm photographing surgery: I lean over to get a closer shot or a more interesting composition, trip on my own feet and land on the surgical table, on top of the patient, and manage to either kill or maim everyone in the room.

This has never happened, and did not happen last Friday when I photographed two hernia repairs performed by a doctor that does cash-only surgeries. The anesthesiologist let me get pretty damn close to the patient though, just on the other side of the sterile drape. It made me nervous, but no one was maimed in the end.