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Doctor Leaves Scissors in Woman After Surgery

Posted on: Tuesday, 20 April 2004, 06:00 CDT

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Eighteen months after colon surgery, a 69-year-old woman in Sydney discovered that surgeons left a pair of scissors in her abdomen.

Pat Skinner told reporters Tuesday that she suffered months of pain after doctors at Sydney's St. George Hospital removed part of her colon in May 2001.

Only after insisting on an X-ray 18 months after the operation did she find a 6.7-inch pair of surgical scissors inside her abdomen.

"I was just devastated, I could not believe what I was seeing. It was like a nightmare seeing those scissors up on the screen," Skinner told Sky News television Tuesday.

The scissors were removed in October 2002, said the hospital.

Although the mishap was reported, the operating team was not disciplined, said the hospital's chief executive, David Pearce.

Skinner was seeking legal action, local media reported late Monday, though it wasn't immediately clear why she had waited so long to press her case.

A hospital spokeswoman told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that lawyers for both sides were currently meeting and discussing the matter.

"We have put this down to human error. I've been executive director here for four years, and in that time we've done something like 40,000 operations and this is the first time this incident has occurred," Pearce told Sydney radio station 2GB Tuesday.

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