When a power outage hit Dr. Christopher Yang's clinic, the Austin urologist started canceling and rescheduling appointments and planned procedures. Then one of the staff members joked that they could use the doctor's Rivian pickup to power the clinic until the lights came back on.
Dr. Yang was not sure the Rivian would work for a lot of procedures at the clinic, but there was one procedure that did not require too much electricity: vasectomies.
When they asked a patient if he wanted to reschedule or just get the procedure done using the electric vehicle as power, the crazy guy chose the truck.
They rigged up an extension cord that ran from the truck into the exam room, plugged in an electrocautery device, and made that poor fellow sing soprano.
The electricity from the truck was more than enough to power both the medical instrument and a small fan since the AC was out.
"I'm not sure that this (vasectomy) should be planned use of the truck," Yang joked, "but it's definitely great to have that as a backup just in case."
Just in case the power failed, Yang had a non-electric handheld cautery device, but the truck held up just fine, making it the first medical procedure an electric car has powered.
"After we were done, I told his family. We all had a good laugh together too," Yang said.
When it's all said and done, I think I feel the same way about using electric cars to power medical procedures as I do about getting a vasectomy.
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