Australian woman sues over sponge left inside her for 15 years

An Australian woman who lived for more than 15 years with a grapefruit-sized surgical sponge sewn inside her after abdominal surgery is suing her doctor for negligence.

Helen O'Hagan claims the sponge was left in her abdominal cavity by surgeon Samuel Sakker during a 1992 partial colectomy.

After the operation in an Australian hospital she suffered cramps, fevers and loss of bowel control but attributed it to the long-running health issues that prompted her to seek treatment in the first place. It was not until she underwent an X-ray in 2007 that the sponge was discovered. A surgeon removed it on the same day.

During the 15 years it had spent in her body, the sponge "became encapsulated in dense fibrous adhesions within a sac of fluid", according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Ms O'Hagan won the right to sue Sakker for negligence or breach of contract over the incident. The surgeon, who has since retired, had argued that the case should be dismissed because she had taken so long to start legal action.

He said he had no memory of treating Ms O'Hagan and that he always counted every instrument used at the end of each surgery.

Judge Leonard Levy accepted that Ms O'Hagan was so preoccupied with her health woes, having been hospitalised 23 times since 1970, she did not initially seek answers about how the sponge had ended up inside her.

The delay was compounded by the fact that the surgeon who removed the sponge was posted to another state for the next three years and did not tell Ms O'Hagan it could only have been left there by Sakker until last May.


/The Telegraph/