The Health Ministry and Mater Dei Hospital have been jointly ordered to pay €119,605 in compensation to a woman after a swab was left in her stomach after a gall bladder operation in 2014.

The case was instituted against the health authorities and the surgeon.

The civil court presided by Mr Justice Toni Abela was told that after the gallbladder operation in November 2014 the wound did not heal and was oozing pus. The woman became increasingly weak.

After many visits to health centres, she was referred for a scan in February 2015 and a week later a nurse pulled out a 25cm swab from her wound. The patient suffered a panic attack when she realised what had been going on.

Although she was discharged from hospital after a scan that determined that there were no more swabs inside her stomach, the woman complained that she remained weak and had also suffered mental trauma, feeling depressed, limiting her activities and even requiring sleeping pills.

In January 2016 she was operated for incisional hernia which appeared to have started from the site of the first operation.

She, however, remained weak and could not even perform ordinary house chores.

The woman said she was offered €20,000 compensation by the medical authorities, which was considered inadequate after consultation with experts. 

In his considerations, Mr Justice Abela said there was no doubt that a swab had been left the woman's body during the first operation. The ‘Surgical Safety Checking’ notes showed that a nurse visually confirmed completion of instrument, sponge, and needle counts but there was no mention of the swabs.

It was 'interesting' the court said, that according to a scrub nurse present for the operation, they were not given a proper course on standard operating procedures but learnt as they went along from their superiors. There were previous cases when swab counts did not match and recounts were held and intensive searches were made until all were accounted for.

"The court finds it very strange how no training is given for such sensitive work," the judge said. "This increases the risk of mistakes such as this one, particularly for nurses just starting their work in operating theatres." 

The judge also praised a nurse for having realised that a foreign object was in the patient, telling a consultant: "there must be something in there.” 

"This was truly a case of the sacristan advising the parish priest because eventually his observation turned out to be true," the judge said. 

The court concluded that the surgeon who performed the first operation was not at fault and this case was a result of poor training for the nurses and because the checklist did not specifically include swabs.

The court found the health authorities and Mater Dei Hospital responsible for the incident and condemned them to pay compensation of €119,605 on the basis of the patient having suffered a 40 per cent permanent disability and 10% psychological disability, calculated on the average wage and the fact that the woman was 47 at the time of the operation and would have been eligible for a pension at 64.