Swab in Chest During Surgery Leads to Death of Patient

Bernard Johnson died after a nurse left a surgical swab in his chest after surgery, an inquest has heard. A scrub nurse on duty at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester intentionally allowed the doctor to close up the surgical site despite knowing that a surgical swab that was used to soak up blood was still inside the patient's chest.

The 64-year-old Johnson seemed to recover but later developed a chest infection and died of multiple organ failure despite the swab being removed in a second operation.

Mr Johnson died as a result of multiple organ failure which had in part been caused by a surgical swab being left inside his chest during cardiac surgery on January 13, 2009, said Catherine Mason, the Leicester Coroner. Procedures were in place at the time to prevent this happening but they were not followed.

Krishna Rungen, the nurse in question admitted that she allowed the surgeon to close up because everyone around the operating table was concerned about the state of the patient.




Source-Medindia