Patient Awarded $280,000 For Surgical Instrument Left in Abdomen

By Brittany Golledge

Published on January 20, 2006

Plaintiff Alex Mitchell, a 38-year-old woman living as a man, filed the lawsuit after x-rays revealed the presence of a foot long surgical instrument in his abdomen. Mitchell had undergone an operation in January of 2001 with attending surgeon Dr. Kathaleen Porter and third-year resident Dr. Aqeel Siddiqui. Following surgery, Mitchell experienced pain and vomiting and returned to the emergency room for treatment. Doctors dismissed his symptoms as gallstones or ovarian cysts until an x-ray confirmed that the surgeons had left a surgical instrument called an Adept Med Fish in his abdomen. The Adept Med Fish is a foot long instrument that shields internal organs during suturing.

Both doctors were found negligent, but the jury placed the majority of blame on Dr. Porter, the attending surgeon.

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