surgical sponges

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After 'Tragedy of Errors,' Woman Awarded Millions

Carolyn Boerste had to have leg amputated after nurses left sponge in her

(Newser) - A woman whose leg was amputated six years after undergoing heart surgery was awarded $10.5 million by a jury last month, after what her lawyers say was a "tragedy of errors" by multiple medical personnel. "Everything has changed," Carolyn Boerste says, per WAVE , which along with...

Surgeons Leave Objects in Patients 6K Times a Year

USA Today investigation finds that it happens a dozen times a day

(Newser) - Leaving sponges and other objects in patients after surgery is supposed to never happen—but it does, with surprising frequency. More than a dozen objects are mistakenly left inside surgical patients every day in America, or around 4,500 to 6,000 times a year, reports USA Today . That's...

New Tech Tracks Things Left Behind
New Tech Tracks Things Left Behind

New Tech Tracks Things Left Behind

Chips, bar codes keep surgeons from leaving sponges in patients

(Newser) - Hospitals are turning to technology to cut down on incidents of doctors sewing up surgical patients with sponges and other items left inside, the Chicago Tribune reports. A bar-coding system to ensure what goes in comes back out is one solution; another involves tagging items with chips that allow them...

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