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130 Comments
- KevenM, on 10/15/2007, -4/+101I was going to put up a comment about frivolous lawsuits, but this story doesn't qualify. As a direct result, she CAN'T HAVE ANY MORE BABIES. 2.4 Million seems pretty low and conservative considering how these things usually go.
- jefuchs, on 10/10/2007, -4/+73He apparently thought she was sponge-worthy!
- pak314, on 10/15/2007, -1/+36It was a foot long sponge. That is kind of big to miss. I though surgeons count their equipment before and after the surgery to make sure they don't miss anything.
- Twist05, on 10/10/2007, -5/+28Dude, she can't have children anymore.
- unorginalityftw, on 10/10/2007, -2/+22...well, I'm not a doctor or anything, but can someone please tell me: how the ***** do you manage to forget something inside person?
- dpknc84, on 10/15/2007, -1/+19"Doctors at Memorial Hospital West performed a Caesarean section on Karlene Chambers on September 11, 2001, the day the Twin Towers in New York City were attacked by terrorists."
Was that last little bit about terrorism really necessary, just had to throw that in there didn't you Peter D'Oench. - earthceltic, on 10/15/2007, -1/+18They do.. in the hospital I worked in there were equipment managers who did that for them during and after every surgery. There is no excuse for this.
- monkeyrun, on 10/10/2007, -1/+17it actually happens more frequent than you could imagine.
Sometimes when the hospital find out, they'll just tell you it's in infection and fix you up in order to avoid lawsuits. - johnhummel, on 10/10/2007, -2/+17Considering that the "oops!" left her STERILE FOR LIFE, I'd say that $1 million is worth the pain and suffering that she will have from being STERILE FOR LIFE. Hope she and her husband didn't want any more children after a doctor, who left a foot of gauze inside of her, caused her to be sterile for the rest of her life.
So maybe, this isn't about health care being expensive because of "evil lawsuits". Maybe it's about a price being put on a doctor who made a mistake that ruined someone's life. - nakile, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15There is a lot of stuff left in the body after surgery every year. Gauze the most common one though, because when it becomes wet it sticks together and becomes very hard to find and manage. Some doctors have even ban it from operating rooms because of the risk.
There was a whole show on the Discovery Channel about left behind stuff, ranging from gauze to medical clamps. - unknownsoldierX, on 10/10/2007, -2/+15And the most logically flawed comment of the day goes to......Error601 !!!!!!
Car accidents aren't a public service, *****. The doctor is paid a lot of money to do what was supposed to be a standard procedure. - ZenMojo, on 10/10/2007, -6/+18With respect to how absolutely stupid you have to be to leave a 12-inch piece of gauze wadding in someone, I support this lawsuit 100%.
- addicted68098, on 10/10/2007, -2/+13A victory for all those who fear doctors leaving stuff behind inside of you!!!
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9Ever lost a socket or a wrench under the hood of a car? Same thing with some blood soaked gauze or sponge stuffed up in somebody's guts. It's easy to miss.
- KevenM, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9what does that have to do with this story? She didn't exactly break into the doctor's home and force him to deliver her baby.
- catalysis, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Actually it's just a piece of gauze called a sponge. It's a 12''x3'' piece of gauze folded into 4 layers, so it's like 3''x3'' and very thin unless you unfold it. If it got bloody, it could be hard to miss. Obviously that's not an excuse, but it could be hard to see.
- Nudar, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Actually the surgeons do know such thing. The circulating nurse and the scrub nurse count up the sponges that were used versus the sponges remaining at the end of the case. If there's a discrepancy and there's no obvious sign of the missing sponge you call the x-ray technician into the operating room. If nothing shows up on the x-ray then you say the count is wrong and move on. The only way this is the surgeon's fault is if he told the nurses not to follow protocol or he did the counting in place of the nurse. I think more than likely the nurse screwed him over by miscounting.
- pilot3033, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8its not
- ThisistheEdge, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7A year's salary? Are you high? Look up average doctor's salary. No where in the ballpark of 2 million.
- Error601, on 10/15/2007, -15/+20Another $2 million we all have to pay for in our insurance premiums.
- hoppy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Obstruction, peritonitis, adhesions...
The man in the background in the video clip calls it a laparotomy pad. They have many uses, importantly they are used to keep the guts back so that you can see the bit you are cutting. They get shoved in quite deeply, and can go missing.
In the UK it's the responsibly of the theatre nurses to count the swabs, packs and instruments. Two nurses count the items before the op, and then they count again as the surgeon starts closing. The surgeon checks after closing that the nurses have finished the count and everything is accounted for. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5No. In malpractice they get 30-50%(depending on state laws)
- TheDreadDiggerD, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Besides a major infection... Read TFA
- MixMastaKooz, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Well, in all fairness, I think we all had a lot on our minds that day and were easily distracted...it still doesn't invalidate this woman's obviously substantiated claim, but it does provide a bit of context.
- synce, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Junior mint?
- MrBabyMan, on 10/10/2007, -3/+6Perhaps the doctor did it as a goof!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtcbVUNO1NY - Nayamina, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I believe so. I always keep it in first aid kits for wrapping wounds, not for just soaking up blood. Generally it's used after being disinfected to keep a light pressure (if wrapped) and keep foreign objects out of the wound.
- KevenM, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4I live in Canada where these things are capped. If I lived in the US, I expect that YES I probably would (and by I, I mean my car insurance company) assuming some degree of negligence on my part.
Not saying I agree with the system, but that's roughly how it would play out. - brodie7838, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3It will be on eBay once they find it has the face of Jesus or Mary on it.
- AtWorkSurfer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3It sounds like they are talking about what's commonly called a ray-tek, which can become very small when soaked with blood, but in my experience those aren't often used during C-sections. More likely it was a laparotomy sponge (used a lot in a C/S because they can soak up a LOT of blood), and those are kind of bulky, but even as big as those are, it would be very easy to lose one in somebody's belly. Probably the surgeon used it to pack away some bowel that was in his/her way. When you do that, though, it typically raises a little red flag in your mind, like, "damn that could be easy to forget about" and one will typically say to everyone present, "hey, don't let me forget about that lap sponge I stuck up there".
Still, even if the sponge is forgotten, the sponge count should prevent this from happening. What probably happened is the nurses ***** up the count. I once heard from someone who had just returned from an interview at the Mayo Clinic, that they do an x-ray after every case, not just those where the count is wrong, to prevent errors like this.
One more thing I would mention is that, unless this lady had to have a hysterectomy or take an oath of celibacy, it is complete fallacy to state that she is definitely sterile. The most one could say is that she probably won't be able to bear any more children. Until she hits 50 and her ovaries crap out, you really can't say that she won't be able to conceive. - DiggzDE, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4People on digg are too stupid to understand what gauze is. That is why.
- elchuy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3If you feel that there are too many people, why don't you kill yourself? That would help with the overpopulation problem.
- brodie7838, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3The terrorists did it....
- HelplessSEAL, on 10/10/2007, -3/+6ok...so becoming sterile was totally worth the $2.4 mil? I can imagine that ignorant med students like you are the ones who leave large objects in people in surgery. Either read the damn article or think about what being sterile would be like. And by God if you become a doctor, stay the hell away from me. Doctors, especially surgeons, are expected to be near flawless in their profession, leaving something that large and obtrusive behind is inexcusable.
- betterth, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4The average neonatal doctor will make on average $215,000 http://mdsalaries.blogspot.com/2007/03/neonatologi ... and most likely will spend at least 30% of their income to afford malpractice insurance. (This $2 million comes from the insurance company, and will ONLY serve to harm ALL neonatal practioners by raising ALL of their rates).
The cost of insurance is growing so much that in many cases the cost of insurance is actually higher than the total revenue from teh practicing of neonataology. In these cases, practices are literally shutting down their infant care facilities because it's cheaper for them to not offer that aspect of health care. http://www.jabfm.org/cgi/content/full/16/6/565
Anyone who thinks that this is good and she deserved it is retarded. Healthcare and doctors aren't perfect. The systems and training prevent 99.9% of accidents, but healthcare is not an exact science, nor is it free of problems.
Blaming doctors for being human is not only retarded, but you're actually making the services doctors offer cost more to you since they have to pass the massive insurance rate hikes onto their customers.
So way to go. - kooft, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Some hospitals do final counts while there is still one incision left open. You could throw half the implements after that count and unless spotted visually, they'd never be missed. Hospitals that _have_ been sued for such a thing tend to do counts prior to each major incision being closed. The fact of the matter is, it's a team effort, which is why OR nurses have malpractice insurance and are named in lawsuits along side doctors.
There is a system available that can effectively prevent these situations; there's no excuse to not use it. - AUniquePerson, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I remember watching Family Feud and seeing one of the questions being "What do surgeons most often leave inside of their patients?" Turns out the number one was sponges/gauze. Of course, I didn't believe it THEN... How could a surgeon, who has to be so precise in their job, be so clumsy as to leave something inside a person?
- blogspinner, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Believe me it happens. I had a knee operation and the surgeon left a piece of ligament in and it calcified over the years. I haven't been able to play much in the way of sports since. I found out after the operation that this same ***** surgeon had previously been sued for leaving scalpels, sponges and other items. My physician knew this and yet he let this hack operate on me.
And this sort of thing is more common than you might think - which is why some hospitals are using RFID tags with surgery room items. - ScarMcDyess, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3She isn't sterile. In the video it says that she is "concerned" about her ability to have more children. There really is no reason why she couldn't have more children, the lap sponge was only in for a week or two.
- giskard88, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3eat != have left in your abdominal cavity. your gut is designed to have foreign objects in it and is rather hardy when it comes to infections. the rest of your body is far less tolerant to infection
- JonnyLegal, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3kudos to the seinfeld reference
- roanne, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Surgeons and scrub nurses refer to 4x4 gauze (or any size really) as "sponge", to help control bleeding during surgery.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Ones that work on contigency usually get 33%.
- vampiregabe, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Another reason for tort reform.
- ScarMcDyess, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Yeah but this sponge was on the outside of the uterus.
- DenTPuzz, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Probably come out of his insurance company - he probably won't have to pay a thing (apart from higher premiums next year!)
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2And Jerry Seinfeld would tell George, "Yes, they EAT them. They don't put them next to vital organs in their abdominal cavity."
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -3/+5You want to blame people, blame smokers and fatties. They increase insurance premiums far more than malpractice claims.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Why does everybody keep mentioning the doctor paying up? That's why hospitals have insurance, the doctor isn't going to pay *****.
- s0nicfreak, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3There's a HUGE difference between eating something and having that same thing left in your uterus or abdomen.
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