According to a watchdog group commission report, surgical implements are often left behind in patients. The commission reports that there have been more than 770 reports of retained foreign objects in surgical patients over the last seven years. These cases resulted in 16 deaths and in almost 95 percent of the cases patients had to have their hospital stay extended. The cases discovered by the commission may only be the tip of the iceberg, with some speculating that there could be as many as 2,000 such cases per year. The report found that leaving objects inside patients can cost as much as $200,000 in medical liability payments for each case.
