The Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center has invested in a radiofrequency surgical detection system to prevent another retained object incident from occurring.
In May 2008, an Ohio man left the VA with a cancerous kidney removed, but with 2 surgical towels remaining in his body after the surgery. The facility recently agreed to pay $275,000 to settle the lawsuit subsequently brought by the former Army mechanic.
Robert Sanner, 47, of New Philadelphia, Ohio, felt pain and discomfort in the days following the procedure. He returned to the hospital 3 times before undergoing an August 2008 CT scan that revealed the towels, measuring 14 x 11 inches, which had been left in his body after the surgery. According to the lawsuit, VA hospital officials acknowledged the error and removed the towels the day after they were discovered.
Mr. Sanner ultimately underwent 3 procedures - the first to remove the cancerous kidney, a second to remove the surgical towels after they were discovered by the CT scan, and a third surgery to repair an incisional hernia that had developed after the second procedure, says attorney R. Craig McLaughlin, who represented Mr. Sanner in the case.
Mr. Sanner is now cancer-free, but has a larger, thicker scar than he would have had without the additional procedures, according to Mr. McLaughlin. He also noted that Mr. Sanner missed a year of work as a truck driver as a result of the physical toll exacted by multiple surgeries.
A medical expert hired by Mr. McLaughlin wrote in an affidavit that VA surgeons violated standards of care. James Sarnelle, MD, a Stamford, Conn.-based surgeon, wrote that Mr. Sanner's surgeons noted in a report that all items used during the initial procedure to remove the cancerous kidney had been accounted for afterward. The surgeon and other healthcare providers in the OR at the time of Mr. Sanner's first surgery were not held personally liable for the towels left inside of the patient.
"Mr. Sanner is very pleased that the VA Medical Center has now taken additional steps to make sure that all surgical instruments, sponges, towels, etc., are accounted for at the end of surgery," says Mr. McLaughlin. "However, everyone in the operating room that day had a duty to follow the safety policies and procedures that were in force at the time to make sure this did not happen."
Mark McGraw
