A woman’s Baltimore medical malpractice suit filed earlier this month alleges that a surgeon at the defendant hospital performed an unnecessary surgery on her, and that the surgeon failed to remove a piece of plastic in her abdomen. She further alleges that the plastic is causing her chronic abdominal pain and she will require additional surgery to locate and remove it. Learn more about the lawsuit below.
Baltimore Medical Malpractice Suit Alleges Unnecessary Surgery
The woman had surgery in November of 2014 to remove a benign dermoid cyst. The surgery involved the use of a surgical robot to retrieve and remove the cyst, which would then be transferred to an EndoCatch plastic bag.
During the surgery, a portion of the cyst broke off and fell back into the incision in the woman’s abdomen. The surgeons removed the EndoCatch bag, intending to replace it with a second bag. But before they replaced it, they realized that a piece of plastic from the first bag was still in the woman’s abdomen. The surgeons removed the piece of the cyst that had broken off, but were unable to find the piece of plastic.
The surgeons spoke with the attorneys for the defendant hospital, "who advised the surgeons to obtain the consent of the woman's family to perform exploratory surgeon to locate and remove the lost piece of plastic," according to medicalmalpracticelawyers.com. "The woman's family declined and the woman was discharged from the defendant hospital the following day."
The woman also alleges that the surgery was unnecessary, and that "the defendant surgeon allegedly advised the woman that she needed the invasive surgical procedure to remove the benign dermoid mass for the purpose of generating medical bills for unnecessary medical care and treatment." She is alleged intentional misrepresentation and constructive fraud. "The plaintiff seeks punitive damages in the amount of $5 million and unspecified compensatory damages as a result."