HOSPITAL OPERATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 189, 12 August 1938, Page 10

HOSPITAL OPERATION

CLAIM FOR DAMAGES EVIDENCE OF DOCTOR DENIED t Per Pres« Association.l AUCKLAND, Aug. 10. The retrial of the claim by Mrs. Margaret Barry, of St. Hellers, foi £lBl3 damages against the Auckland I Hospital Board for alleged negligent or unskilful treatment, was continued before Mr. Justice Fair and a jury in the Supreme Court. Plaintiff's claim I was based on the allegation that at | an operation on her in the Auckland Hospital early last year a swab hao been left in her abodmen and had caused her serious illness and suffering until it was removed at an operation in the Mater Misericordiae Hospital on November 27. The Hospital Board denied any negligence or that any such swab had been found. Messrs. Sullivan and Winter appeared for plaintiff and Mr. V. R. Meredith and Mr. McCarthy represented the defendant board. Mother Mary Agnes, second in charge of the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, said she had had 40 years nursing experience. She was 58 years of age. At the time of Dr. J. v«. Bridgman’s operation on Mrs. Barry, she specially attended that operation because a rumour was going about that a swab had been left in the patient's abdomen. The usual staff was present in the theatre, including two “scout” nurses for special duty. Mr. Meredith: It has been suggested by Dr. Bridgman that the theatre was short-staffed on this occasion '! Witness: I emphatically deny that. Witness said that Dr. Bridgman removed a small piece of felt-like substance about an inch long, whicn he balanced on his finger, but no comment was made about it. Mr. Meredith: It is said that you volunteered the information that it was a swab? Witness: It is absolutely false. Mr. Meredith: It is also suggested that you slid it under this green cover?—l emphatically deny that. Nothing was hidden. As" arrangements were it was absolutely impossible to hide anything under the cover. Our actions were all open and above board. Witness stated, that no large mass was removed from the patient, who stood the two hours’ operation very well. As a precautionary measure against shock, she was given an intravenous saline injection after the operation was over. In answer to Mr. Winter, witness said it was about a day before the operation that she first heard the rumour, which came from outside, about the swab. It was her intention, if anything had been found, to notify the Auckland Hospital authorities. A piece 'of brown felt-like substance was the largest piece removed during the operation. It looked like an abscess wall to her. She had not said to Mrs. Barry afterward that all her troubles would be over now because Dr. Bridgman had removed what was wrong. Dr. J. W. Maskell, anaesthetist at the Mater Hospital operation on Mrs. Barry, said Dr. Bridgman had told him before the operation that he thought he would find a. swab. The patient behaved perfectly well under the anaesthetic and caused him no anxiety. It was quite untrue that he had told Dr. Bridgman that he would have to hasten. No word was passed between him and Dr. Bridgman and he heard nothing said about a swab. I“I took particular note of what was going on,” witness said, “and saw no swab removed—only small pieces.” In answer to Mr. Sullivan, witness said he remembered the case of forceps having been left for some years in an Auckland Hospital patient. He had not heard the result of that. Pieces of stuff might have been brought out during the operation that he had not seen, because they had been obscured by the surgeon’s hand. He saw nothing of a large mass removed. Dr. J. Dreadon, who said he hadi been attached to the visiting staff ofj the Auckland Hospital for the past 12 years, gave evidence of the admission I of plaintiff to the Auckland Hospital l on January 10 of last year. She was suffering from pelvic peritonitis. He I described the system of checking and accounting for all swabs used in an ' operation and said that had been followed in the case of Mrs. Barry. Any small swab he used in such an 1 operation would invariably be gripped at the end of a swab-holder. The technique at the hospital now, he i said, was much more rigid than it was seven or eight years ago. If Dr. Bridgman found anything it could not have been anything else than a disorganised ovary. If that were got away there was a good chance of the patient recovering within a few weeks. To Mr. Sullivan witness said it was possible for swabs to become detached from the holder, though he had not

known that to happen In his experi-, . ence. Experts at the hospital had J discussed the possibility of a foreign w body having been left in Mrs. Barn. I He had known of instances of forceps' 1 and of rubber tubing being left in a! wound. 1 The hearing was adjourned.