Woman Awarded $2.4 Million for Sponge

Shannon Weidemann

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A woman underwent a c-section and the doctor performing the operation left a surgical sponge inside her body. The sponge was not discovered until two weeks later and now the woman cannot have any more children. She sued her doctor and the hospital for medical malpractice. A jury awarded the woman $2.4 Million after finding them negligent. The woman was in and out of the hospital following her c-section while doctors tried to determine why she was ill.

Chambers returned to the hospital Sept. 19 and got an X-ray.

A radiologist spotted a foreign object and reported it, but there was a ''breakdown in communication,'' Johnstone said.

On Sept. 22, the foreign object showed up again, this time in a CAT scan. It was a foot-long sponge left in her pelvis. The material caused an infection in the abdomen and uterus.

The woman had a second surgery to remove the sponge. She is still suffering complications from the sponge and the infection that it caused.

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