4 inch instrument? Good grief - where'd this guy get his medical license
Posted on 01/19/2005 11:24:19 AM PST by Born Conservative
DANVILLE, Pa. - A woman is suing a doctor who operated on her, accusing him of leaving a 4-inch metal instrument in her uterus.
The lawsuit filed in Montour County Court says Dr. Samuel Owusu operated on Lori Klinger, now 35, in November 2002. Klinger said she was in severe pain when she returned home and called her doctor. According to the lawsuit, Owusu told Klinger her pain was normal and told her to take pain medication.
Two days later, she went to the bathroom, and the instrument emerged from her vagina, the lawsuit said. Klinger said the instrument was sharp on one end with a rubber bulb on the other. She said she took it to the doctor's office.
"They made it out like it was no big deal," she said, though the lawsuit said Owusu did apologize.
"We felt there was a lack of procedures in place, that they should be checking these things," said Klinger's lawyer, Jane Sebelin of Drums.
When Owusu was reached for comment Wednesday morning, he referred questions to Geisinger Medical Group. A spokeswoman for Geisinger Medical Group, which is also being sued, declined to comment on Klinger's case because of the lawsuit.
Ramona Conner, a perioperative nursing specialist with the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses, said this mistake happens at least once a year at all hospitals that perform 8,000 to 18,000 surgeries a year.
"It's something we try very much to avoid, but it's also something that we do recognize does happen," Conner said.
Conner said most surgical centers use checklists of the instruments to make sure every one that goes into a patient is removed, but accounting for all the instruments is still a challenging task.
"Surgery is extremely complex these days," Conner said. "Instrument sets are extremely complex. They have large numbers of instruments on them."
A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Health said there are no state requirements regarding instrument counts in operating rooms.
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On the Net: http://www.geisinger.org/
Now that had to hurt!
They should of done a FOD walk.
I guess counting the pieces before and after the procedure never occurred to them...
Bizzare...and scary.
"Lawsuit accuses surgeon of leaving instrument in patient's uterus"
I didn't know you could get a tenor sax in there.
Sue the pants off that Doctor! How can the Dr. defend leaving a scapel inside a woman's womb? Million dollar judgement! Loss of licensure! New career... metal detectors?
So many things come to mind, but I'd better keep them to myself. I will check back later, though, to see if the barbecue tongs turned up.
>>I didn't know you could get a tenor sax in there.>>
Depends on the woman.
I wonder if Dr. Owusu went to the University of Nigeria Medical Skool...
Ah-hah! The origin of the problem. A lack of laws.
It's a fundamental flaw of our society - there just aren't enough laws to make life perfect. Yet.
Yo Bud...hol' ma scalpel...
No comment...
What is she suing to get? They said they were sorry. Two days of pain and excreting a 4" instrument from your vagina. Yes, it sucks. But will some idiot jury give her $20 million?
Too bad...who cares how many lives were saved...a woman was inconvenienced for two entire days...shut them down and liquidate all assets to give to her!
Of course they do and sometimes (like this one fortunately) no real harm seemed to have been done. In this case the problem I'm having is the doctor and hospital's manner of dealing with a mistake that was obviously made. They seem to be trying to deny the mistake or whitewash it rather than at the very least apologizing and looking for ways to make sure this type of mistake doesn't happen again.
I love my cigar, but I take it out once in a while. - Groucho Marx.
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