Odd News - Japanese patient's 'tumour' turns out to be 25-year-old towel

[Kevin]

TOKYO (AFP) - Doctors who carried out surgery on a Japanese man to remove a "tumour" had good news and bad news for him. He did not have cancer -- but the "growth" that had been causing him pain was in fact a 25-year-old surgical towel.
ADVERTISEMENT

The patient had been carrying the cloth since 1983, when surgeons at the Asahi General Hospital in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo left it in him after an operation to treat an ulcer, a spokesman for the hospital said.

The man, now 49, went in to another hospital in late May after suffering abdominal pain.

When examinations found what was believed to be an eight-centimetre (3.2-inch) tumour, he underwent the operation to remove it. It was only then that surgeons realised it was a towel.

"The towel was greenish blue although we are not sure about its original colour," the Asahi General Hospital spokesman said, adding it had been crumpled to the size of a softball.

Asahi hospital officials visited the man and apologised, he said.

The former patient has no plans to sue the hospital, which is in talks with him over compensation or other measures, the official said.

Japanese media reports said the man, who was not identified, still had his spleen removed.

[Courtzrocks]

Wow...weird...at least he's ok. Hmm...a towel, that's weird..8cm is fairy large, not the largest tumor/cyst I've seen but no wonder he was in pain.

[Icednova625]

That is pretty crazy, I guess surgical items being left behind happens more often than people would think. Glad he made it out alive

[KDK241]

Only thing I can say is YUCK! I heard something similar here where a woman had a surgical sponge left in her after a C-section and after going to different Dr.'s for about 6 months they found it. I couldn't imagine!

[Courtzrocks]

I heard one where a pair of surgical scissors were left inside...YUCK!

[red192]

I guess my gall bladder removal went ok. No pains from it (YET). And nothing funky bulging from my wrist after 13 surgeries. WOOHOOO

THAT POOR MAN! The other hospital would be paying for the surgery he just had if nothing else if that was me!

[macawlover]

Wow! How could a doctor be so careless and leave that INSIDE him?? And there was a pair of scissors left inside somebody? THat must've hurt... I would definitely sue the hospital, or at least demand that they pay for the surgery.

[Ashling]

Jeepers... what can I say? OWCH!!!? I never thought of the concept of surgeons leaving their operating tools inside a patient!
Scissors being left inside sounds really cool... but painful if the sharp end were to pierce anything. I'm obsessed with scissors. What an invention!