Doctor left surgical pliers in mother's womb

A French mother who gave birth to a child at a Normandy hospital in November got a nasty shock this week after learning the pain she had felt was down to a pair of surgical pliers that a surgeon had left in her womb. The implement had lain undiscovered for six weeks.

The woman, had a caesarian operation at a Rouen university hospital on November 5th but when she returned home the pain wouldn’t stop. “I put it down to the caesarian,” she said. But as the torment continued she finally, on the advice of her GP, returned this week to the hospital, where doctors put her in for a scan of her midriff. “There on the screen, I saw a pair of scissors in my body,” the shocked mother said.



After six and half weeks carrying around the implement inside her she was naturally eager to be rid of the pliers as soon as possible and underwent a successful new operation to remove them on Wednesday night. Although the surgeon, who conducted the caesarian retrieved the item he had left behind, the patient is furious about what happened.

“It’s not normal,” she said. “The doctor apologized. He did not have much of an explanation for what happened. He took responsibility.” The Charles Nicolle hospital, part of the Rouen university hospital centre, acknowledged its fault. Officials said the pregnancy was complicated because of the patient’s medical file. The affected woman and her husband reportedly plan to file a formal complaint in the coming days.

There's a news video in French here.