In 2020, a New Zealand woman in her 20s underwent a standard Caesarean section to give birth. The procedure seemed to go fine, but for months afterward, the woman suffered chronic abdominal pain. She visited her primary care physician multiple times because of it, and even made a trip to her local hospital’s emergency room when the pain was particularly severe.
A year later, in 2021, an abdominal CT scan finally revealed the cause of her distress: a plastic wound retractor about the size of a dinner plate had been left inside her, where it remained for 18 months. A subsequent investigation revealed that during the C-section, the surgeon had requested two retractors of varying sizes, the second (and larger) of which was left behind.
In a similar case revealed in 2018, a 42-year-old Japanese woman who complained of abdominal bloating was found to have two gauze sponges left inside her for at least six years. Likely forgotten during a previous C-section, the sponges had grown attached to the woman’s connective tissue and colon. After the sponges were surgically removed, her symptoms disappeared.
Sadly, these experiences were not isolated incidents: Surgical items are sometimes unintentionally left behind in patient’s bodies. And while medical errors may be unavoidable, leaving foreign objects inside of patients can have devastating consequences.
