The Florida Department of Health has ordered a general surgeon, who left two sponges in a patient during bariatric surgery in 2010, to pay a $15,000 administrative fee and deliver a lecture on retained objects, according to a Gainesville Sun report.
Bruce Brient, MD, performed a procedure on a patient to repair a hernia and place a gastric band at North Florida Regional Medical Center in Gainesville, Fla. The patient returned to the hospital the next day, where X-rays revealed a sponge. It was recovered during an operation that day.
Thirty-six days later, the patient came back to the hospital, complaining of vomiting and nausea. Dr. Brient ordered another set of X-rays, which showed a second sponge that required another operation for removal. Scott Medley, MD, CMO of North Florida Regional Medical Center, said the incidents underwent review by the hospital's surgical quality and medical quality committees.
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Bruce Brient, MD, performed a procedure on a patient to repair a hernia and place a gastric band at North Florida Regional Medical Center in Gainesville, Fla. The patient returned to the hospital the next day, where X-rays revealed a sponge. It was recovered during an operation that day.
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Thirty-six days later, the patient came back to the hospital, complaining of vomiting and nausea. Dr. Brient ordered another set of X-rays, which showed a second sponge that required another operation for removal. Scott Medley, MD, CMO of North Florida Regional Medical Center, said the incidents underwent review by the hospital's surgical quality and medical quality committees.
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