Apparently my dad’s surgery complications were hella rare
Some years ago, maybe a decade ago give or take, my dad had surgery for a hiatal hernia. After they closed him up, they had a big uh-oh moment. They left a piece of surgical tape inside him. So they opened him back up to get it out. Not fun for my dad. But here’s the real kicker: after they closed him up the second time, they saw something on the X-ray that they had missed before because it was just out of frame by literal millimeters the first time they looked; they had also left a curved surgical needle in him.
Welp they deemed removing the needle not worth the risk, and 10 years later it’s still just kinda floating around in his abdomen. He gets it checked periodically to make sure it hasn’t migrated.
My mom was definitely pissed. She convinced my dad to sue for malpractice, but in the beginning my dad didn’t want to sue. He said that despite everything that occurred it was a “relatively successful surgery.” He did end up suing, but what he really wanted was some statute of limitations removed where if it causes him grief down the line he can have any necessary surgeries covered, but some lawyer told him it doesn’t really work like that, that all he could reasonably get was monetary compensation before the statute ran out.
But yeah, apparently items being left behind in someone’s body from a surgery is quite rare, and to have 2 items left behind from the same surgery is a downright anomaly. The rate of 1 retained surgical item (RSI) being left behind is about 1 in every 5,500 to 7,000 surgeries. The odds of 2 RSIs, well there’s no specific stats on that but if you were to assume the chance of leaving a second item was the same as leaving the first, the rate would be one in every 39 million surgeries. Of course if one was already left behind that may mean that conditions that would lead to RSI would increase the likelihood, so it’s probably more than 1/39MIL, but hell even 1 in one million is still… well, one in a million.
Welp they deemed removing the needle not worth the risk, and 10 years later it’s still just kinda floating around in his abdomen. He gets it checked periodically to make sure it hasn’t migrated.
My mom was definitely pissed. She convinced my dad to sue for malpractice, but in the beginning my dad didn’t want to sue. He said that despite everything that occurred it was a “relatively successful surgery.” He did end up suing, but what he really wanted was some statute of limitations removed where if it causes him grief down the line he can have any necessary surgeries covered, but some lawyer told him it doesn’t really work like that, that all he could reasonably get was monetary compensation before the statute ran out.
But yeah, apparently items being left behind in someone’s body from a surgery is quite rare, and to have 2 items left behind from the same surgery is a downright anomaly. The rate of 1 retained surgical item (RSI) being left behind is about 1 in every 5,500 to 7,000 surgeries. The odds of 2 RSIs, well there’s no specific stats on that but if you were to assume the chance of leaving a second item was the same as leaving the first, the rate would be one in every 39 million surgeries. Of course if one was already left behind that may mean that conditions that would lead to RSI would increase the likelihood, so it’s probably more than 1/39MIL, but hell even 1 in one million is still… well, one in a million.
