In even the best situations surgeries in Pennsylvania and throughout the nation can be dangerous to those undergoing them. Depending on the procedure being performed the risks vary. For example, last week we wrote about a man who died as a result of the medication that was given to him as he came out of surgery. Other times injuries are inflicted during the procedure when an organ is nicked. In still other situations, a foreign object is left in a patient's body. Unbelievably, at times the object can be quite large.

Sometimes the foreign object is discovered and removed before much damage is done. In other situations however, the object can inflict injury or illness necessitating its immediate removal and sometimes that removal actually leads to more harm. A "never" event such as this one occurred in another state a couple of years ago. An 8-inch clamp used in a procedure to remove a gastric band was left in the man's body and went undetected for three days. When the instrument left in the patient was removed, bleeding that broke out led to the removal of his spleen. Fortunately the patient survived.

The clamp was left despite the fact that most hospitals count all objects used in a surgery both before and after the surgery is complete. Though that procedure was reportedly followed in this case, the missing object was accounted for. It is not clear how it was ultimately discovered that the count was inaccurate and the clamp was still in the man's body though it likely involved the man experiencing pain.

Even if one physically recovers from such an incident, the psychological strain will likely be there for years to come. After experiencing such an ordeal, some decide to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. This is what the man who was injured in this incident did. The lawsuit settled before it went to trial. The hospital was also fined $50,000 in connection with the incident.

Source: Ventura County Star, "Simi hospital fined $50,000 over clamp left in patient," Tom Kisken, June 6, 2013