Veteran Sues VA Department For Surgery That Left Scalpel In His Body

A veteran filed a lawsuit against a Connecticut hospital claiming a scalpel was left in his body for four years after his surgery, reports said Monday.

Faxon Law Group filed the lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs on behalf of 61-year-old United States Army veteran Glenford Turner, who had his cancerous prostate removed in robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven Campus in 2013.

Turner’s lawyer, Joel Faxon told the Boston Globe that the surgery took five hours instead of the one hour it should have taken. There was no standard measure of X-ray performed afterward to ensure that no surgical materials had been left behind.

Turner returned to the VA hospital on March 29, 2017 for an MRI after complaining of dizziness and long-term abdominal pain. “The imaging study was abruptly halted when Mr. Turner began to experience severe, worsened abdominal pain,” Faxon said.

“X-rays revealed the presence of an abandoned scalpel inside Mr. Turner's body. Doctors confirmed that it was the scalpel knife used during Turner’s radical prostatectomy — performed four years earlier at the West Haven VA,” he added.

CBS affiliate WFSB-TV reported that the instrument, which was present near Turner's stomach and intestines, was removed in a surgery in April 2017.

Turner’s lawsuit claimed he suffered pain, additional surgeries, medical expenses and lost work time. Faxon called the incident “an incomprehensible level of incompetence.”

"It is shocking that in return for that service the VA thanked him by deploying a rookie surgical trainee to perform the surgery who showed an incomprehensible level of incompetence by losing the scalpel in Mr. Turner's abdomen and not bothering to find it. He just sewed him up and moved on to his next victim,” he said.

“I don’t know how the man is still alive, frankly, because [the instrument] could have pierced the bowel, it could have pierced the intestines, it could have pierced the stomach,” Faxon said. “There are a lot of sensitive parts in the lower abdomen.”

He added that Turner had no infections and was “getting along OK,” but that he was “apoplectic over the whole thing.” Faxon also expressed concerns that there could be long-term damage.

“I said this is the easiest case in the history of the world for the government to pay, because they know they screwed up. You have an administration run by Donald J. Trump, who claims to be a friend of the veteran,” Faxon told the Globe. “And the veteran is then completely blown off by the government, forcing us to file this lawsuit and go through this process that’s completely unnecessary.”

A Department of Veterans Affairs spokesman, Curt Cashour, said, “VA does not typically comment on pending litigation.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) said he was "appalled and stunned" by the allegations.

"While the court determines liability, I have asked for a detailed explanation from VA of this deeply troubling report. I am demanding also full accountability so this kind of horrific negligence never happens again," Blumenthal said in a statement Monday. "America owes our veterans the world’s best medical care, nothing less.”