Ever wonder if you will have a worse quality of life after a surgery because of medical malpractice. Most people think that a surgery is undertaken to improve quality of life but surgical instruments sometimes literally get in the way. A Florida judge found out after five months that a surgical sponge was the cause of his continuing post-surgical pain.

To address his stomach pains, the judge had surgery for diverticulitis, which is a digestive disease of the large intestine, and ended up having greater pain after his surgery. The judge took multiple trips to his primary physician and received numerous CT scans that did not lead to any answers. Only an additional surgery in March revealed the problem — a 12 inch by 12 inch sponge left from his diverticulitis surgery.

The enormous sponge sat in his body and soaked up bodily fluids like pus and bile and deteriorated him from inside. The pain was real because the leftover sponge had done actual damage to his body. The judge explained, "When they opened me up, the medical report shows that [the sponge] was rotting. Because the sponge was left there and it was rotting, it created perforations in my intestines, so when they removed the sponge, they had to remove a section of my intestines as well."

Every year around 1,500 patients in the U.S. experience a similar situation where residual surgical objects are found after surgery. Surgical sponges are most often found but are not normally as large as the sponge found inside the Florida judge.

The error was not the only error the hospital committed. The judge was given the wrong post-operation medicine. He was suppose to get medicine to lower his blood pressure but instead received medicine that sped up his heart rate. As a result, he nearly suffered a heart attack.

Before the surgery the judge and his wife loved to ride their horses across state and he often incorporated his horse into his performance as the "Florida Cracker Storyteller." Now the judge says he can no longer ride for a whole or even half day.

Source: Today.msnbc.msn.com, "Doctors Find 1-Square-Foot Sponge Inside Patient," Michael Inbar, 9/15/10