• 16
  • August
    2011

There are some types of medical mistakes that simply should never happen. In these cases, a medical malpractice lawsuit serves two purposes: first, a medical malpractice lawsuit can compensate the victim for his or her injuries, medical bills and other expenses; second, a malpractice lawsuit can serve as a lesson for other medical professionals, which can help prevent future life-threatening errors.

Leaving a sponge or a foreign object in a patient during surgery is one egregious example of malpractice. Recently a Pennsylvania jury agreed with a woman who sued Lower Bucks Hospital and two nurses for compensation after they left a surgical sponge in her abdomen.

The injury victim in this case had been at the hospital in March 2004 for a cesarean delivery. According to the lawsuit, surgical staff failed to perform a proper count of sponges, which was supposed to be done before surgery, before the abdomen is closed and when the surgery is completed.

Following the C-section, the patient suffered severe pain in her abdomen. Initially, it was believed she was suffering ordinary post-surgery pain. However, the pain persisted for more than two months and the woman underwent a CT scan. The CT scan found a sponge within the woman's lower abdomen and upper pelvis.

The woman developed an infection because of the surgical error. To make matters worse, the sponge had adhered to part of her bowel, which required additional surgery to remove 16 inches of her small bowel. To this day, the Pennsylvania woman suffers abdominal complications because the sponge was left inside of her at the hospital.

Just weeks before her case was scheduled to go to trial, the defendants offered a $100,000 settlement, which was declined. After a four-day trial, a jury unanimously found the hospital and the two nurses involved with the surgery to be responsible and awarded the woman more than $525,000.

Source: PhillyBurbs.com, "Woman awarded $500K after nurses left sponge in her abdomen," Jo Ciavaglia and Laurie Mason Schroeder, July 21, 2011

Tags: Cesarean, Foreign Object, Medical Malpractice, Surgical Errors