They should get an x-ray in surgery, with a needle inserted in the lamina of the vertebra they are going to work on. Then they can look at the film, and make sure they are at the correct level. The crazy neurosurgeon I worked with many years ago always did this, to make sure he had the clamp on the correct level. But, it's always good to mark the correct side, which Dr. Ramos's P.A. did, as there have been lots of cases of wrong-sided surgery that were horrible~~~like amputating the wrong limb
