Woman lived with sponge in the abdominal cavity for 15 years

Physician error: An Australian patient lived for 15 years with a sponge in the abdominal cavity and suffered from severe abdominal pain and fever

01/08/2011

An Australian woman with severe abdominal pain and attacks of fever lived for almost 15 years: A doctor had forgotten a large sponge in the abdominal cavity during a medical procedure. Now the injured party sued her former surgeon for damages. This one said, „the operation was way too long ago“.

Doctor left sponge behind in the patient's stomach
A doctor error, as it does not happen every day. The then young Australian Helen O'Hagan had to undergo a colon operation in 1992. The operation as such is carried out a thousand times every day. But even after the actually harmless procedure, the patient just did not feel better. She suffered from constant fever attacks, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and recurring abdominal pain. The state of health simply did not want to improve. The person concerned postponed the onset of pain to the original diagnosis and would never have thought in his life that there might be a medical error. Even the after-treatments never led to a result.

The sponge was discovered by X-rays
It was only in 2007 that the victim undertook a rescue X-ray of the abdomen. The doctors noted with astonishment that there was a sponge the size of a grapefruit in the abdominal cavity. In the meantime, the sponge had already interwoven with the body tissue of those affected. On the very same day of detection, the foreign body from the patient's abdomen was surgically removed, like the newspaper „Sydney Morning Herald“ reported on Monday.

Patient suing doctor for damages
The operation error now has a legal sequel. The surgeon, who operated on O'Hagan at the time, is now suing for damages. At the request of an Australian newspaper, the accused Arz said that he had retired and that it was „too much time has passed since the operation“. He could barely remember it. But the competent court saw it differently. After all, since then the patient has had to deal intensively with her suffering. First, she would have to process the suffering, so that a late ad is understandable, so the presiding judge. The Australian had to be treated since 1979 a total of 23 times in a clinic. Only in May of this year was confirmed beyond doubt that the complaints came from the forgotten sponge. If convicted, the doctor must be prepared for a high sum of compensation. (Sb)

Picture: Rolf van Melis