2023-09-06 15:31:12
A surgical instrument was found in the abdomen of a woman 18 months following her cesarean section, revealed the New Zealand Commissioner for Health and Disability, in a report published Monday, September 4, 2023 and relayed by CNN. The size of the tool is comparable to that of a plate.
It is a wound retractor, which can measure up to 17 centimeters in diameter, which was forgotten inside the mother’s body following the birth of her child at Auckland Hospital in 2020. This retractable instrument is used to push back the edges of a wound during surgery.
Chronic pain
After her operation, the young mother suffered from chronic pain for months. She had then undergone several examinations, including x-rays, to no avail. It is only in 2021, when the patient is suffering from intense pain and goes to the emergency room, that the device will be discovered thanks to a scanner and immediately removed.
In the caesarean performed in 2020, a tally of all surgical instruments used during the operation did not include the wound retractor, according to the report presented on Monday. An error which may be due “to the fact that the retractor does not penetrate completely into the wound, because half of the instrument must remain outside the patient and is therefore not at risk of being retained”, said a nurse with the commission.
The doctor in charge of operations at Te Whatu Ora Health group apologized in a statement. “On behalf of our Women’s Health Service, I want to say how sorry we are for what happened to the patient. […] We would like to assure the public that such incidents are extremely rare, and we remain confident in the quality of our surgical and maternal care,” he said.
1694017428
#17cm #surgical #tool #womans #stomach #months #Csection
