Loyola University Medical Center is one of the first hospitals in the country to start labeling their surgical sponges with bar codes.

Approximately 1,000 times a year a surgeon will leave a surgical sponge inside a patient.  By leaving the sponges inside a patient, the patient can develop infections, longer hospital stays, additional surgeries, and even death.

During the surgery a nurse will scan the sponge before and after it is used.  The system will alert the operating doctors if any sponges are left in the patient.  Even with the new system in place, doctors and nurses will still do manual counts of the sponges because each bar code is unique.  Hopes are that the new system will prevent the sponge from being counted twice

Surgical sponges are used in surgeries such as heart surgeries, organ transplants, or even during trauma surgeries to help soak up blood and protect organs.  Since the sponges are made of lightweight gauze, when they are soaked in blood they can blend in and be missed at the end of a surgery. In some instances, several hundred sponges maybe used in a single surgery.

If you feel that you or your loved ones may have been injured by a misplaced surgical sponge, surgical instrument or any other products, please do not hesitate to contact the attorneys at Phillips Law Offices.