Surgeon Left 16 Items In Body After Operation

A surgeon allegedly left 16 items in a body after an operation in 2009. The man’s family is now seeking over $120,000 from the hospital to compensate for the mistake.

According to Ninesmsn, Dirk Schroeder had an operation for prostate cancer in 2009. The operation went fine except for the fact that one of the surgeons left 16 items, including a needle, a six inch role of bandage, swabs, and a piece of a surgical mask, inside of his body.

The discovery was made a few months after the surgery when Schroeder called a nurse out to his home because he was feeling pain. The nurse discovered that a piece of gauze was protruding from one of his wounds.

Schroeder ended up having two additional surgeries to remove 16 items from his body. Schroeder survived the operations but succumbed to cancer last year. His family is now seeking $120,000 from the hospital.

Annette Corinth, the family’s lawyer, told the Daily Mail:

“I hope the hospital will settle but otherwise the family are prepared to go all the way and sue in court. The family of the deceased spent lots of money on care, medicines and reconstruction of their home to look after this man. There has been gross negligence here which most probably had led to complications and possibly a quicker death.”

The hospital, which has not been identified, denied that one of their surgeons left 16 items inside of Schroeder’s body. The hospital says that the items must have entered his body sometime after the surgery.