Legal Pearls

The Folly of Ordering, Then Ignoring, Radiographs

  • The Trial

    After the patient's death, her husband sought counsel from a plaintiff’s attorney and sued the original hospital, and the physician. At trial, the plaintiff’s medical expert testified that the physician’s failure to discover and remove the sponge in a timely manner caused chronic infections, poor healing, and ultimately, the patient’s death.

    The physician’s trial defense was that the retained sponge was not the cause of the patient’s death. The defense medical expert testified that there was no indication that the sponge was infected, and that the complications that the patient sustained were consistent with other individuals with similar intestinal problems. The expert further testified that the sponge did not cause the patient's death.

    The physician admitted that he had negligently failed to discover the sponge, but that her death was not caused by this error. Instead, he, and the defense’s medical experts argued that the real cause of the patient’s death was her history of complex intestinal issues.

    The jury ultimately awarded $200,000 to the plaintiffs. When questioned, the jury said that the doctor’s negligence caused injuries to the patient, and that the hospital provided negligent care, but the jury stopped short of finding that the physician or the original hospital were the proximate cause of the patient’s death.

    The Takeaway

    Had the physician looked at the radiograph before he closed the patient during the surgery, he would have been able to remove the sponge. Had he looked at the radiograph results within the first week or 2 after the surgery and noticed the sponge, he still would have had a good chance of removing it successfully. But by the time he looked at the radiograph almost 2 months later, removing it successfully was no longer an option.

    Although the jury did not find the physician actually responsible for the patient’s death, they found him responsible for unnecessary surgeries and injury caused by leaving the sponge in the patient’s body.

    The physician could have avoided this by simply looking at the radiograph results right after ordering them. This is common error that is seen in every type of medical practice–diagnostic tests or scans are ordered, and then the results are not looked at, followed up on, or conveyed to the patient.

    Bottom Line—It is essential to always look at the results of tests you ordered. Overlooking test results can cause tragic outcomes for both patient and physician.