Steel wire left inside woman after operation, court told

A woman claimed she was in pain before her wedding day and ended up in hospital during her honeymoon after a steel wire was allegedly left inside her after a gallbladder operation.

Eleanor Curtin Sheehan has sued South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital in Cork for damages.

“I was devastated. I was shocked. I did not know what to think. I was suffering for so long. This was inside me and I had no idea,” she told Ms Justice Mary Irvine.

Her counsel told the court yesterday Ms Curtin Sheehan had a gallbladder procedure in the South Infirmary Hospital in April 2011.

In July 2012, she had to have surgery to remove a 4cm-long steel wire from her upper abdomen.

John O’Mahony, counsel for Ms Curtin Sheehan, said a scan before the July 2012 operation had identified a metallic object near the abdominal wall, consistent with where the gallbladder procedure had taken place in April 2011.

Counsel said experts on Ms Curtin Sheehan’s side will say the “inescapable conclusion” is that the foreign body came about during the gallbladder operation carried out in the South Infirmary in 2011.

The 57-year old, from Holyhill, Cork City, has sued South Infirmary Victoria Hospital Ltd, the owner of South Infirmary Victoria Hospital, Old Blackrock Rd, Cork.

She also claims the hospital failed to properly manage or treat her during the course of the gallbladder removal operation and as a result she suffered severe personal injury.

Ms Curtin Sheehan claims she was caused to suffer considerable abdominal pain and discomfort and had to undergo two further operations in July 2012.

It is also alleged there was a failure to observe the metallic object during the course of an inspection of the operative site at the end of the 2011 gallbladder operation. It is further alleged the piece of metal that was retrieved did not resemble any recognisable surgical instrument and it may have been metal used for cleaning some of the laproscopic equipment.

The hospital denies negligence and says the piece of steel could not have got in to Ms Curtin Sheehan during the gallbladder procedure and contends that she may have accidentally eaten it.

Mr O’Mahony said Ms Curtin Sheehan had a gallbladder operation at the South Infirmary in April 2011.

A few months later she had abdominal pain and swelling. in May 2012, Ms Curtin Sheehan was married and while on honeymoon in the Algarve required admission to hospital with pain, he said. She later went on holiday to Wales in July 2012 but had to come home early because of pain.

She was referred to Mercy University Hospital where the surgeon ordered a scan. The scan showed a linear metal object in the upper abdomen and Ms Curtin Sheehan had to have second operation to have it removed, he said.

In evidence, Ms Curtin Sheehan said she was happy-go-lucky before this but that has all changed.

She said there was “no way” she had swallowed the wire.

The case continues.