metal detector..... metal inside body.... news...

[attgig]

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/americ...eut/index.html

Surgical tool left in woman's stomach for 4 months
Tuesday, December 17, 2002 Posted: 11:03 AM EST (1603 GMT)



WINNIPEG, Canada (Reuters) -- It took an airport metal detector to give a Canadian woman a clue to why she was suffering from persistent stomach aches four months after having abdominal surgery.

Despite the detector's beep, airport security guards in Regina, Saskatchewan, were unable to find any metal on her body before the woman's October flight to Calgary, Alberta.

Several days later the woman had an X-ray.

It showed a 30-centimeter (11.7-inch) long, 5 cm wide surgical retractor, used to hold incisions open, had been left in her abdomen after surgery four months earlier at the Regina General Hospital.

The woman now wants compensation from the surgeon and the hospital, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Monday.

"I would think that it would be an understatement to say surprise, probably more like horror, that this surgical device was left inside her abdominal cavity," the woman's lawyer, Jeff Scott, told the CBC.

After surgery, medical staff are required to account for each piece of equipment used, said an official from the Regina health authority, which oversees the hospital.

"Systems are never perfect and, as always, we strive to do the best we can," Brian Laursen, the senior vice-president of the health authority, told the CBC.

"But inevitably, in any system, there tends to be the occasional failure," he said.

The woman had surgery to remove the retractor a day after her X-ray. She told the CBC she is still in pain.

[whitak24]

hmmm....and they say that canada has better medical care than the u.s.

[molecularfire]

Stupid stuff like that happens in the U.S. all the time too. Anyways, we should tell the mexican ambulances to keep going north. Canada has a national health care program.

[mojo]

Originally posted by molecularfire
Anyways, we should tell the mexican ambulances to keep going north. Canada has a national health care program.

[cheapie]

true story...my grandpa's brother had abdomen surgery a couple of years ago and they left a sponge in there. when he came back complaining they noticed it and had to do another surgery to remove it. he then got the bill for the second surgery and they threatened to sue him when he wouldn't pay it. wtf?

[InfiniteNothing]

They were going to charge HIM? for their mistake of leaving the sponge in? That's one of the saddest things I've ever heard.

[ufcrusher]

I find this to be more than a bit unbelievable. The simple fact is that having metal in your body generally wont set off the metal detector. I have had two 7" titanium pins in my hip since 1988 and I have never once set off a metal dectector, either here or abroad. On top of that, my mother has two 12" herrington rods in her back and she doesnt set it off either. (I could go on with a LONG list of the people I know with pins and screws in their ankles, feet, shoulders, etc...but I guess you get the drift).

When I first got my pins in, I was flying back to my house in Florida the day after I got out of the hospital. I was worried about setting it off, and the inspectors even told me that they never had seen someone set it off in this way.

[molecularfire]

Maybe it depends on the metal. Think of it this way... the stuff that's in your body was designed to be in your body. The people who figured this stuff out might've had the foresight to use metals that won't set off metal detectors while they are in your body. Surgical retractors are NOT designed to be in the body after the operation. Of course, this is just my guess. If anyone knows what the answer really is, I'd be very interested in knowing.

[whitak24]

i dunno.....

first of all, what metal detectors catch all depends on how high they're turned up. it also depends on how the metal is positioned and how you move through the detector.

in response to what molecular said though, they do not (that i know of) use metals that are "invisible" to detectors. my dad works designing medical implants (hips, knees, etc), and he said that most hospitals provide implant patients with a signed, labeled "x-ray photo" of their new joint, so that if they set off metal detectors, they can show it to the authorities and it will allow security to use hand wands to verify that they really have the implant.

[Hoser]

How many people do you think are going to carry an "x-ray photo"? What they need is the x-ray screen that was in Total Recall. Although something that big might make some people sterile.

[InfiniteNothing]

I can see this system being abused:
"Yes sir, here is my Xray photo, my fake hip just happens to look like a gun"