Sponges, drill bits and wires: Surgeons mistakenly left objects inside thousands

Sponges, drill bits and wires: Surgeons mistakenly left objects inside thousands of patients since 2015 Hospitals leave items in patients during surgeries in hundreds of cases per year, sometimes resulting in injuries and death. For a week after her surgery, 26-year-old Emily Abney-Acosta’s abdomen swelled. It was so tender that a tight shirt was too much pressure. She couldn’t stand up straight from the pain or lift her young children. In September 2018, she rushed to an emergency department in Frisco, Texas. She was evaluated and assured her incision would eventually heal, she said. Then, Abney-Acosta woke up to find the inch-long wound had burst open and was oozing fluid. She changed the dressing every day for months. The pain lingered and her core felt weak. After nine months, Abney-Acosta sought a second opinion. The new surgeon gestured at something the other doctors had missed on her CT-scan — the shape of a curving S inside her abdomen. “That’s a sponge,” he said. A spong ... Read full article.