Passing material post delivery normal?

[IsoBordem]

Hi, I had a forceps and episiotomy delivery a few days ago. Today I just passed a large ball of material - is this normal or have the doctors accidentally left this inside me?

When you say material? Do you mean like gauze or like bloody lumps of potentially flesh like stuff? The first would be unusual, the latter horrific but normal.

It’s fabric material - like a large clump of gauze

That is not ok and is a Never Event if they have in fact left a swab inside. Please put it in a bag and phone your Maternity Triage. The Trust should escalate this as a Serious Incident and investigate fully if that is the case. Are you feeling well in yourself otherwise?

Turns out it is a surgical sponge that they accidentally left inside. Not sure what the process is but the midwife has taken it and checking that the surgical items count was correct after the birth

Oh do you have any sign of infection? That's really bad!

Thankfully no signs of infection, it had only been a day and a half. On a course of antibiotics now just in case.

Pretty disappointed in the dr. Seems they knew the count was off but couldn’t find it anywhere. So they just assumed that the number used was incorrect instead.

Christ no that’s not normal. Are you ok? I would be making a formal complaint once you feel up to it. The procedure has failed here and especially if they knew the count was off.

Congratulations on your baby. Sounds like you’ve had a rough ride. Hope you are recovering well now.

Oh that's really bad. As a PP said it's a Never Event. Glad you're ok, but the staff need a massive bollocking (especially as they knew ), and an investigation done.

I would definitely advise complaining- there's been a major failure of their checking processes, and if this has happened to you then a similar incident could happen to someone else with much worse consequences. Any swabs or material used in theatre should have an X-ray detectable strip- if the count it off, the patient should be X-rayed, it's not acceptable to just shrug it off. Please don't let them fob you off- this should be an investigation in which they would update you of their findings.

Oh my goodness op! Hope you are feeling alright!

Like others have said please don't leave this without a complaint I can imagine there could have been serious consequences!