Quesion About Surgical Clips Being Left In?

[Philip Rogers]

I just found out they left some surgical clips in me, during the appendectomy I'd had, back in '98. They've shown up as unusual in x-ray/CT scan reports that I've just received. A quick www search says this is not unusual, but I am not sure. I'm fairly sure no doctor would ever admit it was an error but they never told me about it. Anyone w/info please post. Thanks!

pr

[Pete53]

I looked on google and it happens a lot but the people who sued usually won. Looks like an 1151 claim to me. They can cause problems, There are some operations where they use clips of titanium designed to stay in but yours should have been removed in 9 or 10 days from operation.

[WAC-Vet75]

I also have surgical clips..... a CT showed one by my right kidney...asked the Radiologist about it and she said it was from my kidney surgery... funny thing is, I never had kidney surgery! I had gallbladder surgery. Though those clips showed up, I have what seems to be an extra one.... One Doctor told me that the clips can migrate, so just have to wait to see if it causes any damage.

[Philip Rogers]

Pete - mine are internal and don't sound like they should be there. I remember when the surgeon took out the external sutures, from the laporascopic apendectomy, he took out 4 and said he was done. I said there was still one more. He was very indignant and told me he was the surgeon and he knew how many he'd done. I told him I was the patient and I could count better than he could and showed him where the other was. The beet red faced surgeon removed the last one, for me, and then wrote that he'd removed my pancreas. Idiot!!!!! Hey, maybe I better have it checked and be sure??? lol

I'm thinking not the 1151 but the other. I should have 2 yrs from when I discovered the error. I believe it kinda like leaving a surgical sponge in there, by mistake. The OR nurse in charge of the count should have caught it. I don't think I need to wait for something to go wrong w/me, just leaving it there is an error. jmo

pr

I looked on google and it happens a lot but the people who sued usually won. Looks like an 1151 claim to me. They can cause problems, There are some operations where they use clips of titanium designed to stay in but yours should have been removed in 9 or 10 days from operation.

[Berta]

Philip-there is info the net such as:

http://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/i-recently-discovered--that-i-have-surgical-clips--85059.html

regarding these types of situations.

For VA purposes, under 1151 or FTCA you need proof of a resulting and ratable disability directly due to the clip that was not removed.

If the surgery stemmed from a SC condition, in that case you could claim any resulting problems as secondary to the SC as well as under 1151.They wont grant both ways of course but would probably grant secondary with fewer problems than a 1151 claim would generate.

"The beet red faced surgeon removed the last one, for me, and then wrote that he'd removed my pancreas."

The "pancreas" entry is golden if you feel you should file under 1151 as it reflects on his incompetence to include the clips he didnt remove.I raised every single inaccurate medical issue I could for my FTCA/1151 claims.

Still there must be a ratable additional disability (or injury) that the medical error caused for VA to pay for their medical error.

I posted a Must read first in our FTCA forum a week or so ago.

I still get contact regarding local vets who think I have some way they can sue or 1151 the local VAMC like I did.

But the basis for FTCA and 1151 has not changed in decades and those regs control these issues.

The medical evidence for FTCA or 1151 must be clear and undebatable documented medical proof that what VA did-or in some cases didnt do and should have done (ommission of acts)- did not correspond with what the 'standard and usual' medical community would have done in the same situation.

I asked a wife of a vet and 2 local vets with these types of potential 1151 /FTCA issues to join us here fairly recently but they haven't done that because they dont want to try to get an IMO that proves their case and they don't want to get a lawyer for any FTCA issue.

(I think they did read the 1151 forum stuff.)

I am not discouraging you however from filing a Sec 1151 claim. By the time the VA gets to it, you could have developed a serious consequence from these clips.

My FTCA/1151 claims were a battle because I had no IMO or lawyer.

It is a battle that can be won but the research and medical studying involved is very time consuming and -in my case I fought them back relentlessly but that is difficult for disabled vets to do these days.

My lay evidence and lay medical opinions were accepted by VA only because the medical evidence of malpractice was overwhelming and my past pro se legal experience helped me to present it in a way the claims could not be denied.

I dont advise that at all- but others have certainly succeeded without IMOs or lawyers.But few and far between.

The VA will ask you right off the bat what disability or injury you have incurred due to the clips being in you.

Have you had any other medical problems that might possibly be due to the clips?

"The beet red faced surgeon removed the last one, for me, and then wrote that he'd removed my pancreas."

You could ask them for 1151 comp due to the pancreas removal! just a thought

Edited June 13, 2011 by Berta