Scalpel Left Inside Vet’s Body After VA Hospital Surgery: Lawsuit

WEST HAVEN, CT — A U.S. Army veteran is suing the West Haven Veterans Affairs Hospital on allegations that his long-term abdominal pain was due to a scalpel that was left inside his body during a surgery at the hospital four years earlier, according to his attorney. New Haven-based Faxon Law Group filed a malpractice lawsuit against the VA Connecticut Healthcare System on Monday on behalf of Glenford Turner, 61, after an X-ray showed there was a scalpel inside his abdomen.

Turner, a Bridgeport resident, went to the VA’s West Haven campus on March 29, 2017 for a scheduled MRI after experiencing a recent episode of dizziness and long-term abdominal pains. The MRI was abruptly halted when Turner began to experience severe, worsened abdominal pain, according to his attorney Joel T. Faxon.

An X-ray revealed that there was a scalpel inside Turner’s body, which Faxon said doctors confirmed was the scalpel knife used during Turner’s radical prostatectomy — performed four years earlier at the West Haven VA — on Aug. 30, 2013.

Faxon said that Turner was forced to undergo another surgery in April with the “attendant serious anesthesia risks — to remove the dangerous instrument parked near his stomach and intestines.”

Faxon blamed a “rookie surgical trainee” for leaving the scalpel inside Turner’s abdomen.

“Mr. Turner served our country proudly for decades,” Faxon said in a statement. “It is shocking that in return for that service the VA thanked him by deploying a rookie surgical trainee to perform the surgery who showed an incomprehensible level of incompetence by losing the scalpel in Mr. Turner's abdomen and not bothering to find it. He just sewed him up and moved on to his next victim.

“I find it unconscionable that any hospital — particularly one serving our United States' veterans — would be so haphazard in the care they provide. The VA's low standard of care has been the subject of much discussion lately, but this is a new low. Better care can be had at a veterinary hospital. They should be ashamed of themselves.”

See also: Yale Surgeon Removed Wrong Body Part from Patient: Lawsuit

Upon learning of the lawsuit, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he was “appalled and stunned” by the allegations.

“While the court determines liability, I have asked for a detailed explanation from VA of this deeply troubling report,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “I am demanding also full accountability so this kind of horrific negligence never happens again. America owes our veterans the world’s best medical care, nothing less.”

Image via Faxon Law Group