Surgery can be a scary thing. You're under anesthesia, you're completely helpless, and you can really only pray that the doctor knows what he's doing. Even if you manage to do good research on a doctor (not that easy), there are often other doctors who show up right before surgery whom you had no idea about. If you've got surgery coming up, you might want to skip this story of the German man who reportedly had 16 pieces of medical equipment left behind in his body after routine surgery.
The man, identified as 74-year-old Dirk Schroeder, went in for prostate cancer surgery at a hospital in Germany. But his wounds were healing badly -- so badly that reportedly he could no longer sit down. It was then that a home nurse on a visit discovered a piece of gauze sticking out of his body.
He went back in for surgery and doctors reportedly discovered no less than 16 surgical instruments -- including a needle, a six-inch roll of bandage, a six-inch-long compress, several swabs, and a fragment of surgical mask -- still inside his body. WTF?! Were these doctors drunk?!
The hospital reportedly had a brilliant excuse for why so much stuff was left behind inside the poor man -- it said it had entered him "post-operative." But, conveniently, it had no explanation as to how the HELL a bunch of surgical equipment enters a body after an operation. Did it just sort of migrate there on its own?
The family has been in a fight with the hospital over compensation ever since -- it originally offered the man's family about $660. The family wants over $100,000.
Unfortunately, the poor man died from cancer after two more operations to remove his surgical detritus. This is one hospital I would avoid.
Do you have a scary operation story?
Image via Enokson/Flickr
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Comments 11
i worked in surgery and even the thought of one instrument being left behind is crazy. All instruments and tools (even gauze) is supposed to be counted when opened, several times during surgery and right after to make sure that doesn't happen. How in the world did part of a mask end up in there? Where were all of the nurse's and scrub techs that are their to assist and keep up with that stuff? And really, all of that happened post-op? When the surgical incision was already closed up? Major BS!
Was the anesthesiologist supplying the whole staff?? Of all the crazy stories I have read on here, this one just boggles my mind!
That's crazy! When I had my second knee surgery the doctor accidentally started to cut about 1 1/2 inches over from where he meant to. Their cover-up? "It's a reaction to the tape we used." Uh, right, like I wouldn't know the difference between a CUT and a tape mark..plus the fact that I've had several surgeries and never had a reaction to anything. It wasn't a huge deal but it would have been nice if they would have admitted their mistake!
@jessasmamma The article correctly spells "prostate" not prostrate. I don't get why so many people get totally bent out of shape over these blogs/articles. Geez take a chill pill or if it bothers you that much don't read them.