The operation to remove the forceps has been reported by the state television channel VTV. The procedure was undertaken for Ma Van Nhat, who is aged 54. A review of his previous medical history showed that Nhat had undergone an operation in 1998, following a road traffic accident, and the forceps had been left inside his abdomen.
Although Nhat had felt occasional pain in his abdominal region no doctor he had visited had suspected he had a foreign object inside his body. One clinic had given him medicine for a stomach ulcer.
Still suffering with occasional abdominal pain, Nhat underwent an X-ray and this revealed that he was carrying surgical forceps. When they were removed, the forceps were found to be 15 centimeters (six inches) long, although the instrument had broken apart and some of the stainless steel material had become lodged inside Nhat’s stomach.
An investigation is underway to track down the surgeon who left the forceps in Ma Van Nhat, given this is a sign of medical malpractice. This is being led by Trinh Thi Luong, who is the director of the Bac Kan Hospital (which undertook the recent operation).
Speaking with the Hindu Times, Ngo Trung Thang, deputy head of general affairs at Gang Thep Thai Nguyen hospital, said of Ma Van Nhat: “he is recovering well.”
Although most medical facilities have careful procedures to check against medical instruments being left inside patients, errors still happen. The types of instruments that have been reported over the past decade include needles, knife blades, safety pins, scalpels, clamps, scissors, sponges, towels and electrosurgical adapters.
In addition to these, less common devices are tweezers, forceps, suction tips and tubes, scopes, ultrasound tissue disruptors, asepto bulbs, cryotomes and cutting laser guides, and measuring devices. Of all of these, the single most common left behind object is a medical sponge.
