Surgeons forget spatula

[mofro187]

A GYNAECOLOGIST and two trainee doctors in northern Greece have been handed suspended prison sentences after forgetting a 22-centimetre medical spatula in a patient's abdomen.

The three accused and a scrub nurse today received suspended prison sentences of between 10 months and a year.

The oversight took place during minor surgery on a 45-year-old woman at a hospital in the northern city of Serres in January 2005.

The patient soon developed breathing problems, a skin rash, fever and a gathering of fluid in her abdomen.

Her doctors initially attributed the problems to an allergic reaction and gave her medication but a CAT scan subsequently found the missing surgical instrument.

The patient had been awarded €50,000 ($98,000) in damages in a prior civil trial.


Pretty big thing to forget

[madcat]

That's terrible. Poor thing. Not what you need when you go in for an op

MadCat

[Waldo]

That's scary - and not the first time (or probably the last) that there'll be news about things left in patients after ops. It's no wonder we don't like going to hospital when you hear stories like that!