Japanese patient's 'tumour' turns out to be 25-year-old towel

Sounds pretty wild.

i would be highly upset and god only knows who operated on him 25-years ago.

I cannot imagine the pain and suffering this poor patient had to endure.

I'm so glad they're going to try to compensate him.

They had a show on DiscoveryHealth last year about things being left behind. One guy had a hemostat left after abdominal surgery for almost a year. There was a towel left, and a few other assorted things. I know I saw a surgery when I was in training where the nurse doing the count said they were missing a sponge, and the doc told her she had miscounted and kept closing the pt. Two other nurses went over and counted, looked on bottoms of shoes, etc (messy abdominal surgery). Surgery-boy just kept closing, even though the nurse kept say, "Hold on, my count is off." Finally, she went around the table, got in front of the guy, and said, "Dr. XXX, you left it inside." He proceeded to cuss her out, and she said, "Curse me later, get the sponge out of the patient NOW." He tore back into the pt, telling the nurse he was going to show her she couldn't count, etc.....and guess what he found? Did he admit his error, of course not! He then yelled at her, telling her she should have told him sooner that a sponge was missing. I always thought, if she'd been a more timid nurse, that pt would have ended up with a raging infection.

That guy single handedly turned me off being a surgical nurse, because on a hormonally challenged day, I'd have dumped the entire tray of dirty instruments over his head.

And BTW, all the nurses refer to this surgeon as "Dr. Death."

I worked for an ear doctor who would throw instruments at people during surgery. One day a nurse left in anger. When the case was over the police were waiting on Dr. to charge him with A&B. She now drives a fine sports car.

i once worked with an aide and she showed me an x-ray of her abdomen with forcepts that had been left during surgery

Oh dear God Along with the circulating nurse, they should have someone who watches the entire surgical procedures just to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen. I know mistakes happen, but still...hospitals should invest in something like this.

Iagree, doctors should take full resposibility for their action. Fufufiu

OH. MY. LORD!!!!!