The federal government has agreed to pay $275,000 to settle a lawsuit from a man who had two towels left inside of him after surgeons at the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center in Cleveland removed a cancerous kidney.
Robert Sanner, 47, of New Philadelphia, felt pain and discomfort in the days after his surgery in May 2008 that left him free of cancer. It took three return visits to the hospital before he underwent a CAT scan in August 2008 that showed the towels, measuring 14-by-11 inches, had been left in his body.
Government medical services at work. Doesn’t anyone there notice anything as he is being sewn up??
Pedro-you said it right to begin with: it was the Instrument Nurse: count the items before the surgery===count the items after the surgery.
The standard of care for surgeries using lots of such equipment is to xray the patient after surgery. Those towels all have xray reflective markets on them to make it easy for the morons.
I’ve watched video of surgeries: you can look right at a bloody towel and not tell its not tissue: therefore the instrument count: something the surgeon cannot/shouldnot be expected to do. But the instrument Nurse is there for no other reason.
I wonder how drunk or bored he/she was? Or left the room for some reason? Or is a foreigner and can’t count?
No excuse.
Instrument nurse missing a red scarf
or red briefs?
Doctor: “Have you seen my car keys, Nurse Fletcher? I’m late for tee off and I can’t find them anywhere! You don’t suppose……”
Those are some expensive towels.
This happens all the time, and no more often in “govt health facilities” than private ones. Including to a close family member. We decided not to sue rather than relive a rather traumatic procedure.
An interview on CBC radio many years back discussed how an ex-pilot was charged with transferring the protocols used in-flight to the operating room to avoid basic errors. In the interview, the pilot explained how the protocols avoid miscommunication that appeared in the normal operating procedures — he was stunned when he first learned that an operation did not practice the same basic safety that is used everyday in the airline industry.
I have heard a similar campaign (maybe the same guy you mention) to institute basic checklist procedures in the medical industry to reduce these kinds of errors. Its has met not only indifference, but active resistance.
I don’t know why this surprises anyone. Sometime around the time that “grunge” was all the rage it seemed like everyone took on a whole new level of apathetic attitude – in everything.
Think about your own job for a minute (for those of you who have jobs, don’t own the company, and interact with other employees). Do you really care if the company stays in business? Do you even care what co-workers think?! You may be surprised at just how many people say no. Remember: Actions speak louder than words!
I remember reading one of those “condensed novels” in the back of a Readers Digest circa 1970, “The Making of a Surgeon” (Nolan?).
Anyway, as a medical student making his first operation, he left a towel inside a guy, causing his stomach to swell horribly. They called him “Dr. Nolans pregnant man”.
I don’t remember if there was any ligitation involved way back then.
It could have been worse. The could have removed his good kidney.
or his leg
Oh, poop. Some people get excited at the least little thing. It’s not like they were big terrycloth bath towels! Jeez, I can’t count how many wristwatches, eyeglasses and fountain pens I’ve lost during surgery. Hell, last week I listening to a guy’s chest and thought he had a heart murmur. When we x-rayed him, we found out what happened to my last cell phone! It was set to vibrate. It’s unforgivable to have a cell phone ring during surgery…
Is there some evidence that this happens only with “government” medical services, and not “private” medical services? Or is it just lazy and sloppy commentary?
According to a study I found by Googling “Mortality rates of VA hospitals,” they published this conclusion:
If the current findings generalizable to other markets, hospital mortality, a widely used performance measure, may be similar or lower in VA and private sector hospitals serving the same markets. The longer LOS [Length Of Stay] of VA patients may reflect differences in practice patterns and may be an important source of bias in comparisons of VA and private sector hospitals.
In other words, the study concluded that VA hospitals experience mortality rates that are as good or better than private hospitals.
What they don’t tell you is private hospitals suck.
Therefore, a VA hospital is comparable to a private hospital.
Wonderful.
I should mention that anyone who is going into a hospital for surgery that requires general anesthesia should inquire about their anesthesiologist.
A Nurse Anesthetist is NOT a qualified medical doctor anesthesiologist.
If a hospital tells you that you will have a Nurse Anesthetist, you should request to have an M.D. Anesthesiologist in attendance.
I am not saying that all Nurse Anesthetists are not properly trained and qualified. I am sure most of them are qualified.
Why should anyone take that chance?
An M.D. Anesthesiologist is a trained medical doctor that specializes in anesthesiology.
You have the right to request an M.D. Anesthesiologist.