O C T O B E R 2 0 1 7 O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y . N E T 4 3
Nelson Bailey and his wife, Carol, used to vacation
on horseback every year. They'd ride between the
coasts of Florida, all the way from the Gulf of
Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean. "We did that for 18
years in a row," says Mr. Bailey, a retired judge
from Palm Beach County, Fla.
A stray surgical sponge broke the streak.
The sponge, used during a follow-up surgery
stemming from a bout of diverticulitis, stayed
inside Mr. Bailey for 6 months, wreaking havoc on his intestines. "It pretty well
knocked me out of the saddle," he says. "It changed our lifestyle, and not for the
better."
Mr. Bailey, now 74, was actually more fortunate than many victims. "I'm lead-
ing a reasonably normal life," he says.
But there was nothing normal about the agony he endured as a result of the
12-inch by 12-inch sponge that was left behind after his 2009 procedure.
"I kept going downhill afterward," he says. "In court, everyone thought I was
dying. I was losing weight and my health was collapsing. People I hadn't seen for
several months would say, Oh my God, what's going on, Bailey?"
He had several X-rays, but the hospital radiologists and his surgeon kept miss-
ing the obvious evidence, he says. Eventually, he got a call from his primary care
physician, who told him there was a sponge somewhere in his abdomen.
A half hour later, says Mr. Bailey, his surgeon called, offering to take it out for
free. "My immediate response was, I'm sure you can understand that I don't have
enough faith in you anymore to do that."
Instead, Mr. Bailey went to the Cleveland Clinic Florida in Weston, Fla., where
surgeons discovered portions of the sponge balled up between and wrapped
around his intestines.
REAL CONSEQUENCES
CHANGE OF PLANS The Baileys intended to
see the country on horseback during their
golden years.
Nelson
Bailey
A Life Interrupted by Left-Behind Sponge
