Surgeons Find 8-Inch Forceps Left in Woman By ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press

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Surgeons Find 8-Inch Forceps Left in Woman By ZARAR KHAN, Associated

Press Writer

Tue Apr 25, 4:04 PM ET

 

 

 

KARACHI, Pakistan - Surgeons retrieved a pair of eight-inch-long (20-

centimeter-long) forceps left inside a 17-year old Pakistani when

she had an appendectomy nearly three years ago, health officials

said Tuesday.

 

 

 

Three senior surgeons and four paramedics will be fired from the

state-run People's Medical College Hospital in Nawabshah for the

blunder, said Naushad Shaikh, health secretary of southern Sindh

province.

 

The patient, Akleeman Daheri, is in stable condition after

undergoing the removal surgery Sunday — at the same hospital — but

lost 12 inches (30 centimeters) of her small intestine during the

operation, Shaikh said.

 

Daheri had suffered stomach pain since the initial operation on Aug.

15, 2003, said the hospital's medical superintendent, Mahfooz

Qureshi.

 

The pain was originally diagnosed as postoperative discomfort and

treated with painkillers. However, Daheri recently returned to the

hospital where an X-ray revealed the forceps in her abdomen.

 

" The metal piece entangled in her small intestine was removed, and

two pieces of perforated intestines had to be removed for smooth

functioning of her digestive system, " Qureshi said.

 

Daheri lives in a village near Nawabshah, 300 kilometers (190 miles)

northeast of the city of Karachi. Shaikh said the victim's family

had decided not to pursue criminal charges, but he warned other

surgeons and paramedics to demonstrate more care.

 

" Human life is not a joke, " he said. " They shouldn't be this casual. "

 

Last month, a Pakistani woman died because a pair of forceps was

left inside her during a Cesarian section birth 18 months ago at a

hospital in the southern city of Hyderabad.