I tend to think medical malpractice lawsuits are seriously overutilized these days, but I think in this case of our New Zealand it might be justifiable:

A surgical tool "the size of a dinner plate" has been discovered inside a woman's abdomen 18 months after undergoing a caesarean section while giving birth to her child, health officials have confirmed. ...

18 MONTHS!!!

"An Alexis wound retractor (AWR), a device used to draw back the edges of a wound during surgery, was left in her abdomen following her C-section," the report said. "This resulted in the woman suffering chronic abdominal pain until the device was discovered incidentally on an abdominal CT scan."

How big is an "Alexis wound retractor" you ask?

Well, it's this big:

It's big, in other words.

How exactly does a doctor leave something like that behind in an abdominal cavity? I would imagine the attending physician is asking himself that very question right now. Probably his lawyer is too. Apparently, according to nurses involved in the surgery, a second retractor was used because the first was too small for the size of the incision needed, but then the larger retractor was left behind.

"I remember being asked by the scrub nurse to open another Alexis wound retractor … We had none in the prep room, so I quickly fetched one from the sterile stock room," the other nurse said. "I opened this to the scrub nurse and left it at that. I do not remember telling [one of the other nurses] that I opened it and I did not write this with the count, as at this time this item was not part of our count routine."

Ahh, but don't worry, the hospital is really stepping up on this one:

The commissioner recommended that the woman be provided a written apology by hospital staff and a review of hospital practices is now underway.

Live look at this woman's personal injury attorneys reading that recommendation:

You're gonna need a little more than a "written apology" for this one, docs!

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