0:05
yeah so my client um he actually had had
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cancer and they had been treating his
0:12
cancer he was doing very well he had
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pancreatic cancer which you know can be
0:16
deadly but the treatments have improved
0:18
recently so they treated him um and they
0:21
felt he was in good enough condition
0:23
that they were going to removed part of
0:24
his pancreas which is a surgery that
0:27
that is used for pancreatic cancer
0:30
and so he underwent the operation the
0:32
operation was
0:34
successful uh they told everybody
0:36
everything went fine there was an x-ray
0:39
taken following the surgery and the
0:42
radiologist uh noted that there appeared
0:44
to be a retractor which was lying next
0:46
to my client on the operating table and
0:49
nobody followed up with it you know they
0:51
do a they do a count of the instruments
0:53
after an operation just to make sure
0:54
they have you know everything that went
0:56
in came out and either they didn’t count
0:59
or they count obviously was inaccurate
1:01
because they left the retractor inside
1:04
of him and the X-ray that showed it
1:06
lying beside him on the table actually
1:08
showed it inside his body nobody caught
1:10
it so he left the hospital um he went
1:14
home he was having you know significant
1:16
pain which you can imagine you know it’s
1:18
sizable retractor you know probably six
1:21
to 8 inches long and um they go back he
1:24
went back to the hospital a few days
1:25
later they did another type of
1:27
exploratory operation and they still
1:29
didn’t recogniz ized that they had left
1:31
this thing inside of him uh so I closed
1:33
him up after the second operation uh he
1:35
goes home he’s from North Carolina he
1:37
went back to North Carolina and you know
1:39
he having just ongoing abdominal pains
1:42
and you know a lot of problems going to
1:44
his doctor down there flies back up to
1:47
New York they do a third operation uh
1:50
about two months after the first one and
1:53
lo and behold they discover then that
1:55
the retractor was left inside during the
1:58
first operation uh unfortunately it had
2:01
migrated to his intestine they closed
2:04
him back up and he went back home to
2:06
North Carolina but he had developed a
2:08
you know sepsis infection throughout his
2:10
whole body from this retractor piercing
2:14
his intestine and he died about a month
2:16
later after going back to North Carolina
2:19
so you know tragic case lovely guy
2:21
wonderful family very intelligent family
2:23
they’re all in the medical profession
2:25
you know nurses and uh Physicians
2:28
assistants so you know Navy people and
2:31
they put their trust in the hospital and
2:34
uh you know the result was a tragic
2:36
result a guy in his early 60s still
2:38
working you know couple uh I think he
2:41
had four children and some grandchildren
2:43
and you know the prime of his life and
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tragic situation it’s a brand new case
2:50
we have filed suit actually the
2:52
hospitals lawyers asked us if we want to
2:55
try to settle the case early because
2:58
obviously this is an indefensible
3:00
case from a malpractice point of view
3:02
it’s just a question of what it’s worth
3:05
so you know talking to the family and
3:07
trying to see if this is something we
3:09
want to resolve early or want to go
3:10
through litigation so it it depends on
3:13
how much they offer to settle the case