A common nightmare for patients undergoing surgery is having surgical tools left behind inside the body. While a patient is on the operating table, sponges and towels may fall into open wounds. Additionally, broken pieces of instruments, stapler parts, and other sharp objects may also be left inside patients’ bodies.

In 2013, The Joint Commission, a healthcare safety watchdog group, released a report which discovered more than 770 incidents of foreign objects being left in patients both during and after surgery throughout a seven year period. In fact, the cases resulted in 16 deaths. Moreover, 95 percent of the cases required patients to remain in the hospital for a longer period of time. The incidents most commonly occurred in operating rooms, labor and delivery rooms, ambulatory surgery centers or “labs where invasive procedures such as catheters or colonoscopies take place.” Lack of policy and procedure, as well as failure to comply and communicate, were cited as common causes.

One of the goriest stories involving surgical tools left behind include a string of incidents which occurred at the University of Wisconsin. For five years in a row doctors left surgical tools in five patients. Two of these incidents involved a 13-inch retractors—a surprisingly long object to overlook.

Connecticut hospitals, however, do not have a much better track record. According to the Hartford Courant, state hospitals reported 65 cases of surgeons having left objects in patients between 2004 to 2008. One Hartford Hospital patient went through the same devastating experienced as the patient at the University of Wisconsin—a 13 by 2-inch retractor was left inside her body. It was not until two weeks after the initial operation that the mistake was discovered: the patient returned to the hospital complaining of sharp abdominal and neck pain, and then had to undergo a subsequent operation.

If you or someone you know underwent a surgery and experienced subsequent complications, perhaps caused by having surgical tools left behind, the most important step is to seek legal counsel. You do not go through it alone. An experienced Connecticut medical malpractice attorney can assist with your case and look out for your best interests. Call 203-226-6168 today to schedule your free initial consultation.

All medical procedures have some degree of inherent risk. When things go wrong, it is not always the fault of the medial professional who is handling the situation. Sometimes an amalgamation of unforeseen events causes a patient to suffer unexpected consequences. These are what are known as adverse events. According to a paper from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), there is a big difference between such adverse events and negligence. Negligence implies that the less-than-great consequences of the medical procedure are the fault of the medical professional. Additionally, thousands of errors are made every year “resulting in injuries to patients who many deserve compensation.” Yet it can be challenging to determine what constitutes medical error and what is resultant from the standard risk inherent to medical procedures.

According to the NIH, a Harvard Public Health study found that roughly 27 percent of adverse effects from medical procedures occur because of negligence on the part of a medical professional. “Medicine is not an exact science,” the NIH states, “and complications are an inherent feature of any procedure or medical intervention.” Surgeries, across the board, typically carry a 3 to 4 percent risk of infection. While sterilizing equipment and ensuring that all professionals are held to the highest standard of cleanliness can help mitigate the risk of infection from unsterile objects during surgery, there is still this risk during a surgical procedure.

Another important distinction to make when determining medical negligence or error is that between system errors and negligence. A doctor is negligent, for example, if the patient is suffering kidney failure, needs dialysis, and the doctor fails to put the patient on dialysis. However, say the doctor does order dialysis but a nurse misunderstands and the patient does not receive dialysis. This is simple human error. A 1999 paper from the Institute of Medicine, “To Err is Human,” states that “most medical errors are the result of unavoidable human error, which can only be reduced through system changes.”

If you suspect that you have been the victim of medical error, the most important step is to seek legal counsel. Do not go through it alone. Contact an experienced Westport medical malpractice attorney today.

A new study by Columbia University School of Nursing about hospital infection prevention policies has revealed some disturbing results – most hospitals fail to follow their own policies. The price of these infections is high, costing $33 billion annually for excess medical care and killing 100,000 people in this country every year.

Researchers studied the prevention policies of over 1600 intensive care units (ICU) at almost 1,000 hospitals located across the U.S. The team was especially interested in what kind of checklists were in place to prevent central line-associated bloodstream infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia and catheter-associated urinary tract infections.

Of all the ICUs studied, one in 10 still did not have any kind of checklist in place to help deter bloodstream infections. The study also found that one in four ICUs had no checklists to help prevent patients developing pneumonia while on a ventilator.

For those units that did have checklists in place, these safeguards were only followed half the time.

Past research has shown that the use of electronic monitoring systems and staff that are trained and have infection control certification can significantly reduce the occurrence of these infections. But only one-third of the hospitals actually had some type of electronic monitoring system in place. And more than one-third of the hospitals studied had no staff trained in infection control.

The research was led by Dr. Patricia Stone, who has been involved in considerable research about hospital and health-care infections. In a statement, Dr. Stone said, “Hospitals aren’t following the rules they put in place themselves to keep patients safe. Rules don’t keep patients from dying unless they’re enforced.”

Dr. Stone also added, “Every hospital should see this research as a call to action – it’s just unconscionable that we’re not doing every single thing we can, every day, for every patient, to avoid preventable infections.”

If you have suffered from complications caused by negligent medical care, contact a Westport medical malpractice attorney to find out what compensation you may be entitled to for pain and loss.