Towel Left Inside During Gastric Bypass Surgery

Settlement Amount: $1,100,000.00
Attorney: David A. Kulwicki

Description of Case: A surgical towel had been left inside Plaintiff’s abdomen during an elective gastric bypass surgery. It is the duty of the hospital’s OR personnel to count surgical supplies and instrumentation before, during and after the surgery. The hospital’s employees testified that they conducted their routine surgical count at standard times during the surgery, but nonetheless missed the surgical towel. Despite clear-cut negligence, the official Death Certificate stated that the cause of death was a pulmonary embolism (PE), not the retained towel. In fact, most instances of PE have no known cause. Plaintiff uncovered no evidence that the PE was misdiagnosed or treated improperly. Thus, Defendants contended that the cause of death was