Tissue forgotten in patient’s heart kills him after 14 years

Russian police are in search of the doctors who left a tissue in a patient’s heart, eventually causing his death of a heart stroke 14 years later.

The man, a resident of Krasnoyarsk Territory of Russia, had a weak heart. In 1995, he traveled to Moscow for heart surgery, which proved successful.

Fourteen years later, in January 2009, the man died of a stroke. A routine autopsy, however, revealed a strange object in his heart, Interfax reports Monday.

“During the operation, the surgeon left a surgical drape in the patient’s heart. Due to the presence of an alien object in the heart, the patient developed chronic fibrous pericarditis,” head of the Krasnoyarsk investigative department Anatoly Bagmet told Interfax.

“A year and a half later, he suffered a microinfarction, ten years later a stroke, and finally died in January 2009.”

Local police have launched an investigation of the accident. At the moment, they are looking for doctors who performed the surgery in 1995.

source