Hundreds of patients have wrong body parts removed in UK hospitals

Wednesday, May 15, 2013 by: Lance Johnson
Tags: hospital mistakes, medical errors, body parts

(NaturalNews) Left and right, surgeons in the UK have been carelessly leaving medical instruments inside patient's bodies. In the past four years, there have been 322 reports of misplaced surgical instruments left inside human subjects. One of the most recent reports comes from a former nurse, Mrs. Bowett, who felt an agonizing pain inside her stomach. An MRI exam revealed a pair of seven inch forceps lodged in her stomach. Doctors rushed to stop the MRI prematurely because the magnetic field had begun to move the forceps around in her stomach, causing further damage.

"I was told there was a risk the forceps could have damaged my bowel, which is life-threatening and that I might not pull through. I just could not believe what was happening to me," Mrs. Bowett said.

Appalling statistics on medical malpractice in the UK

The National Health Service classified this mistake as a "never" because standard procedure should make mistakes like these "impossible." Patient Safety Director, Dr Mike Durkin admits, "Every single 'never' event is one too many."

Mrs. Bowett's case wasn't the first "never" case to come into the spotlight. Astonishing reports now confirm at least 750 "never" incidents becoming reality, including 322 cases of surgeons leaving "foreign objects" inside patients and another 214 cases of surgery done on the wrong body part.

Those statistics include 73 patients who had feeding tubes misplaced and hooked to their lungs. Imagine trying to breathe, sucking food into your lungs instead.

The statistics also involve another 58 patients who were given wrong implants.
Imagine getting a new liver when you really needed a kidney.

Reoccurring surgical errors

The mistakes are becoming so frequent, that they are happening more than once on the same patient.

One patient came to a UK hospital for a scheduled hysterectomy. After the operation, surgeons realized they had left a swab insider her. Surgeons rushed to fix the mistake, removing the swab in an emergency operation. The second operation yielded a similar mistake; the surgeons left a drain in her abdomen. This led to a third emergency operation to remove the drain. After the third operation, she was left in need of a colostomy. Now she awaits a fourth and possibly a fifth or sixth surgery as surgeons scramble in their insanity.

NHS "never" statistics are misleading

According to experts, the National Health service is not even accurately reporting many other crucial mistakes happening in the UK. Experts believe the "nevers" that are becoming reality in astonishing numbers are just a tip of the iceberg. The Freedom of Information Act from the National Health Service trusts may not be telling the entire story.

Medical negligence solicitor Ian Cohen claims that the 25 things the National Health Service rules as "nevers" can easily misrepresent and disregard countless other blunders that are being swept under the rug.

"I think the figures are shocking," Mr. Cohen reports, "there is an emphasis on the 'never event', but actually there is a bigger picture - missing the fact that we have hundreds of thousands of adverse incidents."

Disturbing evidence now suggests that due to NHS malpractice, at least 8,000 people have died in the past 13 years. This only includes the number of clinical negligence claims reported to the NHS litigation authority. Experts believe countless more deaths are results of a medical systems that has put cost-cutting ahead of real health care.

As sad as it is, evidence continues to mount that the medical establishment may be one of the riskiest places to go for receiving medical help. Who wants to go in for a liver transplant and receive a new kidney instead? Who wants to have forceps bobbing around inside your stomach? Who wants to have three, four, or maybe five surgeries, because surgeons can't seem to get it right?

Sources for this article include:

http://www.mirror.co.uk

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

http://www.upi.com

http://www.telegraph.co.uk