This one is scary, and unfortunately not from an episode of ER or Grey’s Anatomy.
A Florida woman is being awarded over 2 million dollars in damages after a doctor left a one foot by one foot surgical sponge in her uterus after a c-section. According to the woman, it was severe pain in the days following her c-section that brought her back to the hospital.
“I couldn’t walk,” she said. “I had to double over because the pain was horrendous.” When antibiotics did nothing to alleviate what doctors said was an infection, Dr. Joseph Becerra took an X-ray. The radiologist noticed a foreign object lodged in the 37-year-old’s abdomen, but it took days before Becerra removed the 1-foot by 1-foot surgical sponge that eventually damaged her uterus.
Here’s the even scarier part:
According to Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration, there were 88 surgeries in 2005 in hospitals statewide to remove objects left in patients from a previous operation.
And that’s just in Florida.
Radical Doula 
Yup. Objects left in patients is apparently a much larger problem than most people realize (or probably want to know). And they DID do an episode of Grey’s Anatomy about that 🙂
Seriously, dosen’t ANYONE know that the OR nurse is 100% responsible for counting sponges???
The lawyers lised and lied about this woman’s case. NO she did not have ANY problems when she left the hospital. Not one day of missed work nor did she EVER have any medical problems at all!! She never even took ONE tylenol for any iscomforts for 6 YEARS after this happened. It is seriously crazy for her to have been awarded this amout of $$$!! South Florida is #1 for medical malpractice cases, WHY? because the lawyers are getting rich and the doctors are quitting as fast as they can. I was the midwife who took care of this woman during her preganacy. She GOT $$$ from the hospital but wanted MORE $$ from the innocent doctor who did nothing wrong. I sat in on the whole trial!! The lawyers who defended the case are now being sued for MALPRACTICE because THEY screwed up the defense case and wouldn’t let the doctor tell the TRUTH on the stand, they refused to let him testify in his own defense!!! Sometimes conspiracy theories are TRUE!! The doctor was set up as a fall guy!! I am sick to death of all the LIES about this case. I will NEVER practice medicine in south florida ever ever again. If the patients want to know WHY all the good midwives and OBs are GONE this is why!!!!!!!!