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do with them — if a patient had just shown up to have an object removed —
they felt grief and despair.
Several cried as they re-lived the experiences. One nurse said she'd seriously
thought about leaving the profession. Most said the experience had strength-
ened their resolve to be better nurses.
It was eye-opening. You can talk and talk about preventing retained items, but
the stories they told humanized the issue, and that made other nurses sit up and
listen more intently. I know what it's like to be in a busy operating room, and I
know that retained objects are completely preventable if we take our time and
count correctly. The key is to always stop and pay full attention at that point of
the surgery. Otherwise, anyone can make a mistake. And when mistakes hap-
pen, they're devastating.
Mr. Bailey sued, and it wasn't until after a confidential settlement was
reached that he finally got an explanation — and an apology. He was told that a
nurse who was involved in the count had gotten a call in the OR and was told
that her mother had been involved in a car accident. "She walked out of the
room," he says. "The count is supposed to stop when that happens, but that
wasn't done."
Now, the long trail rides he loved are no longer an option. "We were going to
see the country on horseback when I retired," he says.
Mr. Bailey's faith in hospitals and the medical profession as a whole has been
shaken, he admits, but he refuses to be consumed by anger.
"I knew right away if I got bitter, it would destroy me, emotionally, mentally, in
every respect," he says. "I just decided to go on with life as best I could, hand
the case over to a good lawyer, and say whatever happens, happens."
What he'd like now, he says, is for surgical professionals to take whatever
steps are necessary to make sure it doesn't happen again, to anyone.
— Jim Burger
