Sponge Left in Patient: Common Medical Malpractice

Some time ago an article by Susan Spencer-Wendel appeared in the Palm Beach Post that chronicled the experience of a County Judge, Nelson Bailey, regarding his own experience with medical malpractice. According to the article, leaving a sponge inside a patient, or the “surgeon’s dread”, is the most common mistake made by surgeons while operating on patients.

Surgery for Judge Turns into Nightmare

Judge Bailey had gone to the hospital for surgery involving diverticulitis. After the surgery, the pain he had been experiencing in his stomach got worse, not better. After his surgery he also received incorrectly prescribed medication that nearly gave him a heart attack. Since no permanent damage was caused, he could make no malpractice claim for the medication. The sponge was a different matter. Various procedures were used to identify the problem, but the metal marker on the sponge was never identified.

Second Surgery Reveals the Problem

Eventually the doctors divined that a sponge had been left inside the judge. They offered to remove it for free, but the judge declined. He went to another hospital where the sponge was removed. The mass that was the sponge was over a foot long and over a foot wide. Unfortunately for the judge, the length of time the sponge was in him caused infection to set up in his intestine, part of which had to be removed. As a result, the judge always needs to be near a bathroom. He is no longer able to participate in his lifelong activity of horseback riding.

Seeking Solutions

Judge Bailey has learned of some technology that can help eliminate this common problem. One such system involves the imbedding of a chip in each sponge that will respond to a wand waved over the patient and indicate if a sponge is being left behind. Another similar system uses bar codes to identify the sponges. Judge Bailey is also an advocate for abandoning caps placed on recoveries for medical malpractice claims. The judge feels that claims should be handled between the patient, doctors, judges and juries, and not be interfered with through the state legislature. Part of the judge’s settlement of his claim included being allowed to speak publicly about his experience.

Bob Jacobson is a personal injury attorney in Boise, ID