Woman gets scissors stuck in abdomen after operation...

GoldenFalcon · Post by **GoldenFalcon** » 2004-04-21 05:37pm

Ouch...

Since when was it standard medical practice to leave tools inside a person's innards?

I don't think this is N&P stuff so I'm putting it here.

Scissors left in woman's abdomen after operation woman sues
20 Apr 2004

A Sydney (Australia) woman is taking legal action after a pair of scissors were left in her abdomen after an operation.

Pat Skinner has told the ABC's 7.30 Report she was given a clean bill of health after having part of her colon removed at St George hospital (Australia).

But for 18 months after the operation Mrs Skinner complained of severe abdominal pain.

An X-ray revealed a 17 centimetre pair of surgical scissors left behind in the 69-year-old's abdomen.

St George Hospital has admitted a breach of the duty of care and her surgeon has apologised.

Mrs Skinner and her husband Don say they were appalled when the scissors were found.

"I just can't believe that, you know," she said.

"I had those things inside me for such a long time. I just think it's obscene. That's the only way I can describe it.

"To see such a thing inside of a person and where they are it's just terrible."

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2004-04-21 05:51pm

I've heard this kind of story crop up a lot lately.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2004-04-21 05:58pm

MY guess is they rush, operations require loads of different types of instruments and stuff occasionally gets left behind.

Post by **Zaia** » 2004-04-21 11:32pm

Damn Aussies. Maybe if they weren't always drinkin' they wouldn't pull shit like this. Oy.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2004-04-21 11:37pm

With stories like this its almost like playing medical Russian roulette

Trytostaydead · Post by **Trytostaydead** » 2004-04-21 11:44pm

Montcalm wrote:With stories like this its almost like playing medical Russian roulette

Com'on, with the thousands of operations done a day.. you only hear a handful of these stories.

But yeah, depending on the operation there are a lot of tools and players involved it can be a really huge orchestrated event. If someone's not making sure that they have accounted for everything being used, and believe me, a lot is in use at one time sometimes and oftentimes they'll disappear from view or can very easily get lost due to their size, shit like this can happen. Also a reason surgeons don't wear watches during the operation..

What I find mind boggling though is how such big stuff can get lost. From the picture I saw in another article, it kinda looked like a clamp (the ones that look like scissors) as opposed to a scissor. But either way, instruments that big should normally always be accounted for by the nurse. And if it was a scissor, it's even more mindboggling as to how it go left there.

Though if it were a clamp, it might be understandable. The doctor probably clamped some vessel and then it disappeared from view in her viscera..

Oni Koneko Damien · Post by **Oni Koneko Damien** » 2004-04-23 11:13am

Hopefully these incidents should be on the decline. I've heard secondhand of many hospitals now passing and enforcing regulations that all tools used in an operation are to be written in and accounted for before and after the operation.

-Damien

Ravenwing · Post by **Ravenwing** » 2004-04-23 11:29am

Zaia wrote:Damn Aussies. Maybe if they weren't always drinkin' they wouldn't pull shit like this. Oy.

oh please, if this was a story posted in australia it would be somewhere in france, the country changes, same as the names and dates. only the general story ever remains and im sure it was true to begin with. i first heard this years ago

salm · Post by **salm** » 2004-04-23 11:33am

that´s nothing that special. you read that in newspaper every once in a while.

Post by **Zaia** » 2004-04-23 03:52pm

Ravenwing wrote:
Zaia wrote:Damn Aussies. Maybe if they weren't always drinkin' they wouldn't pull shit like this. Oy.
oh please, if this was a story posted in australia it would be somewhere in france, the country changes, same as the names and dates. only the general story ever remains and im sure it was true to begin with. i first heard this years ago

I was only kidding. Hence the

.

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2004-04-23 03:56pm

I read about this in the newspaper awhile ago. The scissors were six or seven inches long and the picture of them in the X-ray showed they were partly open. Ouch!

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2004-04-23 03:57pm

After seeing some emegency operations on the discovery channel, I now see how they can forget. The guy had heavy internal bleeding, so they cut him open, filled his abdomen with dozens of sponges, clamps, etc. They then had to look under all his intestines and such to make sure they got every last clamp and sponge, then stitch him up and rush him to a different department for other treatment.