Man Dies After Surgeon Leaves Scissors Inside His Stomach After Surgery

A man reportedly died after a surgeon accidentally left a pair of scissors inside the man's stomach after surgery in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

The patient, identified as 59-year-old Ivan Chavez, reportedly went to the University Hospital of Maracaibo in Venezuela's second-largest city, for a stomach operation. At the facility, Chavez underwent surgery for inflamed diverticula. The operation was initially hailed a success, the Mirror reported.

However, soon after he was released from the hospital, Chavez began to experience abdominal pain and difficulty in eating food and using the bathroom.
Even though doctors prescribed him different medications, the pain and discomfort failed to subside. As his health continued to deteriorate, the medical staff decided to perform an X-ray of his stomach four days after the operation.

The X-ray subsequently revealed a pair of scissors inside the man's stomach that the surgeon had accidentally left behind after the operation. Following the discovery, the patient underwent an emergency operation to extract the scissors. The doctors managed to successfully remove the scissors.

However, just five days after the scissors were extracted from Chavez's stomach, the patient died. After Chavez's passing, his family members reportedly want the surgeons held responsible for his death and blamed the hospital staff for medical negligence, the Tribune reported.

Meanwhile, Dr. Freddy Pachano Arenas, a medic at the hospital where the surgery was performed, announced on Twitter that his colleagues Gerardo Núñez and Luis Gómez were released after being implicated in the man's death.

He claimed that it is "impossible to blame someone for intentional homicide in an act that seeks to save the life of a human being."

The doctor claimed that Chavez's death was not caused by the instrument left behind. However, Chavez's family members and relatives stated that the medics at the hospital had hidden the patient's true condition from them and that they were trying to pretend that everything had gone without hitch.

According to Chavez's family members, the hospital staff only notified them of Chavez's death some two hours after he passed away.

Whether Chavez's next-of-kin intends to file a lawsuit against any of the surgeons who operated on him in either procedure is currently unknown.