2023-09-05 12:16:36
APPLIED MEDICAL
A surgical instrument “the size of a plate of food” was left inside the stomach of a New Zealand woman following she underwent a caesarean section at an Auckland hospital.
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The medical performance, known as Alexis, which is in the form of a tube to stabilize open wounds during cesarean sections, was kept in the patient’s abdomen for 18 months following the delivery.
During this period, the woman suffered severe pain, and visited many doctors until the surgical instrument was found following a CT scan.
Health officials said the public hospital system had failed the patient. First of all, the Auckland Region Health Board said they had not failed to provide the medical care required in the best possible way.
However, Morag McDowell, New Zealand’s Health and Disability Commissioner, disagreed with the findings of the report released on Monday.
“It was clear that the care provided was below standard, because the (surgical instrument) was not identified during any routine surgical examinations, which led to it being left inside the woman’s abdomen,” McDowell said.
She added, “The personnel involved have no explanation as to how this instrument got into the abdominal cavity, or why it was not discovered before the operation was completed and the abdomen was closed.”
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The Alexis instrument is a large, double-ringed, transparent plastic object that is usually removed following the uterine incision is closed during a caesarean section and before the skin is sutured.
The New Zealand Health Commissioner Morag McDowell noted that this is the second time in two years that a device is left in the stomach of a patient in hospitals in Auckland.
McDowell said the hospital should have put in place protocols to prevent the accident, which caused a “prolonged period of distress” for that woman.
And the woman, who is in her twenties, consulted her general practitioner “several times” during the 18 months following her birth in 2020. Not only that, but she went to the hospital emergency department on one occasion due to pain.
The commissioner said she was “disappointed”, given that the Auckland Region Health Board had already breached the Patients’ Rights Act in 2018, following a piece of cloth was left in a woman’s stomach following surgery.
After that incident, the council said that it would require all surgical personnel to abide by a “counting policy,” which is supposed to ensure that staff involved in surgical operations are responsible for all devices and machines used during any surgery.
Morag McDowell, New Zealand’s Health and Disability Commissioner, said some surgeons, however, had not read the policy at the time they performed the procedure on the woman.
Mike Shepherd, director of operations for the Auckland Region Health Board, apologized to the affected woman, in a statement released by New Zealand media.
Shepherd said: “We have revised the patient care regulations and this has improved our systems. This will reduce the chance of similar incidents occurring once more.”
He added, “We would like to assure the public that such incidents are extremely rare, and we will remain confident in the quality of our surgical care as well as the health services we provide for maternity care.”
Responsibility for the news: Cedar News is not responsible for this news in form or content, and it only expresses the point of view of its source or writer.
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