ures until, on June 1,
he died a "painful,
unnecessary and
wrongful death,"
according to a lawsuit
filed by his family,
who's suing TriStar
Centennial for negli-
gence and is seeking
$5 million in damages.
The lawsuit alleges
Dr. Subramanian and
the surgical team did not perform a final needle count before closing
Mr. Johnson's chest.
"We take the responsibility of properly caring for our patients very
seriously and empathize with the understandable grief being felt by
the family," says the hospital in a prepared statement. "We would
like the opportunity to review the specifics of the claims being made
and then determine how best to respond."
Why do these never events keep happening and what can you do to
ensure nothing is left in a patient on your watch?
Far too common
Mr. Johnson's case made national headlines, but retained surgical
items (RTIs) are, unfortunately, often far from newsworthy. In 2017,
the Joint Commission was informed of 116 RTIs, making them the
most frequently reported sentinel event ahead of patient falls (114)
and wrong-patient, wrong-site and wrong-procedure surgery (95).
RSIs are also more likely to occur in patients with high BMIs, when
an unexpected event interrupts surgical routine and when 2 surgeons
6 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8
• PERFECT TEN Line up sponges at the beginning of procedures to confirm that the
count on the manufacturer's pack is correct.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN,
CNOR
