MalloryKeaton

http://www.click2houston.com/health/3624718/detail.html

Medical Students Find Towel Left In Woman's Chest

Woman Donates Body To College

POSTED: 10:57 am EDT August 6, 2004

CANTON, Ohio -- For seven years before her death, Bonnie Valle told her family and her doctors she had an odd feeling in her chest.

The feeling turned out to be a surgical towel that had been left behind during a 1995 surgery and wasn't found until a year after her death, when medical students opened her chest cavity.

Valle's daughter, Jeanne Clark, says her mother donated her body to the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine in Rootstown, Ohio, because she hoped doctors would be able to learn more about the emphysema that killed her.

Last week, Clark filed suit against the Cleveland Clinic, her mother's doctor, Jeffrey Miller, and his practice. The lawsuit alleges the towel caused serious complications, additional medical bills and, ultimately, her death.

Clinic spokesman Cole Hatcher said the hospital doesn't comment on pending lawsuits.

Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

mh67511

I understand human error, but how in the world do you accidentally leave a towel in someone? Even if it was soaked in blood, don't you think you'd notice it before sewing them back up? Craziness.

Subject

If she felt something odd in her chest wouldn't she have had X-rays done? Does anyone know if the towel would have shown up on these x-rays?

Katis

Um, did the doctors/nurses forget how to count? They count things like tools and towels before sewing people up for exactly this reason.

*perfect

Makes me wonder how large a surgical towel is...?

Charlize'sAngel

It took seven years to determine that she had something lodged in her chest? If she always felt something was bothering her, surely she must have been to the doctor countless times, so couldn't they have detected it?

Butterflyz

Oh my god. I'm shocked!

imajica

Thats shocking! I once went to the dentist to get a new cap put on my tooth and when he took the old one off he found cotton wool stuffed inside it, I thought that was bad but a towel in the chest? I guess she didn't think the weird feeling in her chest was too serious, she probably just though it was a result of the operation but you think that the doctors would have done check ups after her operation.

migamoo

Katis is right, they have to count their instruments and towels before they stitch up the body. I am shocked at this but I'm not also. I think that if the woman always felt something was wrong with her chest she should have done something about it. I know I would have.

Cherié £u£u

This is abousutely ridicilous. The very thought of something like this - once again leaves me now faith in the medical system. I don't trust them...They want money and I think they'll do anything to get it. How can you "accidently" leave a towel in a woman's chest?

migamoo

I think there are a lot of people out there who sincerily want to help others but yes there are some who just want the money. and if i'm not mistaken the towel isn't the size of a towel you may think off. i think it's about the size of dish towel or smaller.

Cherié £u£u

Oh, that was size of towel I was thinking about. And Yes, I believe there are some doctors out there that truly enjoy doing what they're doing but I still have major trust issues.

CrabbyCancer69

I'm not shocked...medical malpractice is happening way too much these days, doctors and nurses are more and more negligent all around. I'm sorry she died for that reason...

Galaxia21

Well, she donated her body to science to hopefully know more about the emphysema that killed her, so obviously she had had several chest and lung x-rays done for them to make that diagnosis and to check on the progression of her disease. So in assuming that she went to the very same doctor that performed her surgery, then maybe he knew the towel was there by the x-rays but of course didn't say anything knowing it was his error and the fear of a malpractice suit. And I'm sure having emphysema and then having a towel in your chest did not help matters for her condition. Actually when she smoked I'm sure the towel held in toxins from the smoke, more than normal, so it is probably pretty sure that though the towel might not have caused her death it sure played a part in the progression of the damage to her heart and lungs.

Clearly it is not the woman's fault. She said her chest felt weird for seven years but whose to say she didn't try to have something done about it with her efforts being futile?