CASE SCENARIO

FALIURE TO PROPERLY COUNT SURGIGAL INSTREUMENTS DUE TO NEGLIGENCE

The patient is a 26-year-old female, gravida 4, para 3 with 41 weeks of high-risk

pregnancy, and late prenatal care. According to the patient’s medical chart, she has
reported abdominal pain, edema in the feet and legs, and no contraception use prior to
conception. The patient is morbidly obese. Weight: 325 lbs. Height: 5 ft, 5 in BP: 119/45
Temperature: 98.9° F Pulse: 82 bpm Respirations: 20/minute O2 saturation: 100%... she
was admitted to have cesarean section delivery due to high risk condition, so she was
prepped for the procedure and after the procedure is done, they discovered that one of
the instruments used for the procedure was left inside her abdomen due to the negligence
of the circulating nurse and the scrub nurse.

In this case the scrub nurse failed to count properly the surgical instruments before the
abdominal wall closure by the surgeon.

As we all know, it is the responsibilities of a scrub nurse and circulating to count the
surgical instruments before and after surgical procedure, to ensure that they are
complete. This is done to avoid misplacement of surgical instruments thereby, causing any
form of injury or leaving any of the instruments inside the patient.