Telangana: Medical cotton left inside after C-section surgery, doctors say protocols not followed

Telangana: A woman from Neelwai village in Telangana was left with surgical cotton inside her body after she underwent a caesarean section at the Government General Hospital (GGH) in Mancherial on August 22.

The 25-year-old was admitted to the GGH on August 22 and delivered a baby boy through caesarean surgery the following day. She was discharged from the hospital on August 25.

However, the victim’s health worsened on August 26. She was unable to urinate and was in a lot of pain. She was taken to a private hospital in Chennur, where doctors found a medical cotton pad inside her body.

The cotton was removed and the woman’s condition is said to be improving.

Family files complaint

The victim's family has filed a complaint against the doctors and demanded action against the doctors for their negligence.

The private hospital removed medical cotton which was left inside. Pictures of this medical cotton and state of the woman have been flashed on the internet.

Speaking to NewsMeter, GGH superintendent, Dr Harishchandra Reddy said, “It is a vaginal pack, which is a piece of gauze that is inserted into the vagina after surgery to help control bleeding and prevent infection. The pack should be removed after 2-3 hours of surgery. The nurse informed the family to get it removed from the ward. Unfortunately, she was not taken to the ward, and they left home.”

The superintendent further added, “I am not saying that there was no mistake; ideally, it should have been removed after 2-3 hours. However, due to congestion and a heavy workload, the nurse missed recording it. Some argue that doctors should have followed up on this, but it's important to note that the patient's family was well informed about this aspect."

Lapse in following protocol

Surgical protocols need to be followed strictly by the nursing staff that handles equipments and post care follow up.

In this case, the nurse missed to follow this critical step due to which the victim underwent trauma.

Lapses in surgical protocols are recorded by each department as a lesson to not repeat them again.

These are also a part of the continuous medical education training imparted to nursing and teaching doctors in hospitals.

Similar incident of negligence

This is the second incident of medical negligence in a week, a woman died after giving birth to a baby boy at the Achampet government hospital on August 22. She was reportedly left with cotton swabs inside her body after the C-section delivery, which led to heavy blood loss. She was re-admitted to the hospital, but her condition worsened and she died on the way to a hospital in Hyderabad for advanced care.

Lack of data

In India, due to lack of documentation these cases are left for hospital teams to tackle. But it is an indicator of stress on staff, high work load, lapse in following protocol and a lack of strong redressal system for patients.