Surgeons leave nine inch forceps inside woman during surgery

Surgeons from a top London hospital left a pair of 9 inch forceps inside a patient during an operation and only discovered it 10 days later when she started to begin feeling a sensation of pain.

The patient had been undergoing an extensive gynaecological operation that involved the removal of her spleen when the blunder took place.

Geoff Koffman, the chief of surgery at Guy’s and St Thomas’, told the trust board that at the end of the operation the instruments and swabs were counted and the patient sent back to recovery.

However, according to Evening Standard, about 10 days after the operation she began to get abdominal pain.

Speaking about it Dr Koffman said that a CT scan showed a pair of Roberts forceps, about 9 inches long and similar in shape to household scissors, sitting vertically in her abdomen.

That is not all, in another blunder surgeons almost transplanted the wrong kidney after a nurse handed them a donated organ earmarked for another patient.  

Details of the incidents were revealed by highly respected Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust as part of an aim to be more open about mistakes and learn from them.

Speaking about it, a spokesperson from Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust told Sun Online that as a transparent organisation they fully encourage reporting as part of a "no blame" culture and they have responded openly and proactively to these incidents to ensure lessons are learnt and shared across our organisation.

It comes as a French woman is suing a surgeon after she “gave birth" to a rubber glove and five compresses which he allegedly left in her womb during an operation.

The 48-year-old woman was operated on last April at a private clinic in Marseille, southern France, in a bid to stop heavy periods.