Medical Malpractice Attorney in New York, New York
Can you tell us about the Sloan Kettering medical malpractice case where a retractor was left in the patient?
Can you tell us about the Sloan Kettering medical malpractice case where a retractor was left in the patient?
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Yeah, so my client actually had cancer, and they had been treating his cancer. He was doing very well. He had pancreatic cancer, which can be deadly, but the treatments have improved recently. They treated him, and they felt he was in good enough condition that they were going to remove part of his pancreas, which is a surgery used for pancreatic cancer.
He underwent the operation, and it was successful. They told everybody everything went fine. An X-ray was taken following the surgery, and the radiologist noted that there appeared to be a retractor lying next to my client on the operating table. Nobody followed up with it. They usually do a count of the instruments after an operation to make sure everything that went in came out. Either they didn’t count, or the count was obviously inaccurate because they left the retractor inside him. The X-ray that showed it lying beside him on the table actually showed it inside his body, but nobody caught it.
He left the hospital and went home. He was having significant pain, which you can imagine given that it’s a sizable retractor, probably six to eight inches long. He went back to the hospital a few days later, and they did another type of exploratory operation. They still didn’t recognize that they had left this thing inside him. So, they closed him up after the second operation. He goes home to North Carolina, but he continued having ongoing abdominal pains and a lot of problems. He was seeing his doctor down there and then flew back up to New York.
They did a third operation about two months after the first one. Lo and behold, they discovered then that the retractor was left inside during the first operation. Unfortunately, it had migrated to his intestine. They closed him back up, and he went back home to North Carolina. However, he had developed a sepsis infection throughout his whole body from the retractor piercing his intestine. He died about a month later after going back to North Carolina.
New York, NY personal injury attorney Michael Ronemus talks about tells us about the Sloan Kettering medical malpractice case where a retractor was left in the patient. The patient had been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing treatment. He had pancreatic cancer, a condition often considered deadly, though recent advancements in treatment had improved his prognosis. His medical team decided that he was in stable enough condition to undergo surgery to remove part of his pancreas, a common procedure for treating pancreatic cancer.
The operation was deemed successful, and the surgical team reported that everything had gone well. However, an X-ray taken after the procedure revealed a concerning issue: the radiologist noted what appeared to be a retractor lying next to the patient on the operating table. Despite this observation, no follow-up action was taken. In standard practice, surgical teams count the instruments used during an operation to ensure that all items are accounted for before closing the incision. In this case, either the count was not performed, or it was inaccurate, as the retractor had been left inside the patient’s body. The X-ray, initially thought to show the retractor outside his body, actually depicted it inside, but this was overlooked.
The patient was discharged from the hospital and returned home, but he soon began experiencing significant pain. Given the size of the retractor, likely six to eight inches long, this was unsurprising. He returned to the hospital a few days later for further evaluation, and the medical team performed an exploratory operation. Despite this second surgery, they failed to identify the presence of the retained retractor. After closing him up once more, the patient went back home to North Carolina. However, he continued to suffer from persistent abdominal pain and complications, prompting him to seek medical attention from his local doctor before eventually flying back to New York for further evaluation.
A third operation was performed about two months after the initial surgery. During this procedure, the medical team finally discovered that the retractor had been left inside the patient from the first surgery. By then, the instrument had migrated into his intestine. The surgical team removed the retractor and closed him up again, and he was sent home to North Carolina. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. The retractor had caused a severe infection, leading to sepsis throughout his body. The patient succumbed to the infection about a month after his return to North Carolina.
