Sponge Blobs

If you are a loved one is facing a hospital stay,  you might want to exit this blog.  If you're still here:  A report here  that surgeons leave behind about 4000 of their instruments or sponges inside patients bodies every year.  

All sorts of tools are mistakenly left in patients: clamps, scalpels, even scissors on occasion. But sponges account for about two-thirds of all retained items.

Hospitals traditionally require that members of a surgical team, usually a nurse, count — and then recount, multiple times — every sponge used in a procedure. But studies show that in four out of five cases in which sponges are left behind, the operating room team has declared all sponges accounted for.