In a shocking case of medical negligence, a doctor and a staff nurse have been suspended from a government hospital in Andhra Pradesh after a surgical blade was discovered inside a patient's body following a surgery. The incident occurred at the Narasaraopeta Government Hospital and has sparked outrage and demands for accountability.
Suspension Ordered After Shocking Discovery
The action was taken on the orders of senior officials in the medical and health department. Dr. Narayana Swamy, the surgeon, and a staff nurse who assisted during the operation were placed under suspension. Palnadu District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO) Dr. B. Ravi confirmed the disciplinary measure to the media.
The patient, a 22-year-old woman, underwent a tubectomy procedure at the hospital on November 26. Her ordeal came to light days later, on Friday, when she returned to the hospital complaining of severe post-operative pain. Alarmed by her condition, doctors conducted a scan, which revealed the presence of a foreign object—a surgical blade—inside her body.
Family Outrage and Doctor's Defense
The discovery sent shockwaves through the patient's family, who immediately confronted the hospital authorities. They demanded strict action against the medical staff responsible for the grave error, leading to a tense situation on the hospital premises for some time.
Interestingly, the suspended doctor has contested the allegations of negligence from his side. Dr. Narayana Swamy argued that since the surgery was a tubectomy, conducted in the abdominal area, the blade should have been found there if he was at fault. Instead, the blade was located in the patient's thigh, raising questions about the exact sequence of events in the operating theatre.
"A probe is underway to determine how the surgical blade was found near the thigh when the patient was operated on for tubectomy," stated DMHO Dr. Ravi, highlighting the ongoing investigation into this puzzling aspect of the case.
A Disturbing Pattern of Negligence in Andhra Pradesh
This incident marks the second such appalling case of a surgical instrument being left inside a patient's body in the state in less than a week. In a strikingly similar event, the state government had, on November 30, suspended an orthopedician and a staff nurse at the Tuni Area Hospital. Their suspension followed the discovery of a surgical blade left inside a patient after an operation.
These back-to-back incidents have raised serious concerns about protocol adherence, surgical safety checks, and overall accountability in government healthcare facilities in Andhra Pradesh. They highlight a critical failure in the standard "swab and instrument count" procedure that is mandatory before closing any surgical incision, intended precisely to prevent such dangerous oversights.
The repeated nature of the negligence points to systemic issues that need urgent addressal beyond just suspending individual staff members. The health department's probe will now need to ascertain not only how the blade was left behind but also why the safety protocols failed in two separate hospitals within days of each other.
