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Catastrophic injuries could occur from objects left after surgery

| Jan 24, 2018 | blog

Undergoing surgery is a major ordeal. Due to health issues within your body, doctors and other medical staff need to conduct an operation in hopes to remedying the issue, learning more about it or at least lessening the negative impacts of the problem. While you may have at least one of these hopes in mind when it comes time for surgery, you may also worry about the possible negative outcomes.

Unfortunately, even a seemingly simple surgical procedure could put you at risk of complications. Though the operation itself may have gone well by all immediate indicators, you may later find yourself experiencing issues that go beyond what you expected in terms of recovering from the surgery. In some cases, medical mistakes during a procedure could leave you with even more health problems.

Major mistake

One serious mistake that doctors and other medical staff could make relates to leaving an object inside a patient’s body. You may think that this type of error could not possibly happen often, but really, foreign objects get left behind between 4,500 and 6,000 times each year. Even if discovered in a relatively timely manner, it could still cause serious health problems. Plus, if an object remains in a person’s body for a considerable amount of time, catastrophic or even fatal outcomes could occur.

Commonly left objects

For each surgery, it is not uncommon for medical staff to utilize hundreds of tools and instruments. As such, individuals in charge of accounting for each item may easily lose count. Certain objects get left behind more often than others, and some of those items include:

  • Sponges
  • Tweezers
  • Surgical masks
  • Needles
  • Forceps
  • Tubes

Sponges in particular often go overlooked as they can become camouflaged in the body after soaking up blood. Typically, if an object gets left, it usually remains in the chest cavity, abdomen or vagina.

Impacts of retained objects

If a medical instrument or other object is left in your body, you could face a number of consequences. You may experience considerable pain, develop an infection, suffer internal bleeding or numerous other negative effects. Plus, additional medical procedures will likely prove necessary in order to remove the object. Because these complications could substantially impact your life in physical, emotional and financial ways, you may wish to consider seeking compensation for those damages through a medical malpractice claim.

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