Woman needs second surgery after towel left in abdomen at Chunian hospital

A woman who underwent surgery at the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Chunian, in Punjab's Kasur district, needed a second operation in Lahore after a towel was allegedly left inside her abdomen, according to two Pakistani outlets that reported the case. Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and the Kasur deputy commissioner have taken notice of the incident.

Minute Mirror reported that the woman's condition deteriorated after the operation at the Chunian hospital and she was shifted to a hospital in Lahore, where an ultrasound revealed a foreign object inside her abdomen. According to the woman, the towel was removed in a second operation at the Lahore hospital.

ProPakistani, carrying the same account, identified the Lahore facility as Lahore General Hospital and reported that the ultrasound examination there revealed the towel. The woman said doctors at Lahore General Hospital performed the second operation to remove it.

Both outlets reported that the chief minister and the deputy commissioner had taken notice of the incident, and that it had prompted an investigation into alleged medical negligence.

Neither report said which department or authority is conducting the inquiry, whether any member of the surgical team at Chunian has been suspended, transferred or named in any proceeding, or what the hospital administration's response is. Neither outlet named the woman or gave her age, and neither said when the first operation took place or how long passed before she was moved to Lahore.

Chunian is a tehsil of Kasur district in central Punjab. Tehsil headquarters hospitals are the first tier of referral care for patients outside the district's main cities, and cases of alleged negligence at such facilities are routinely referred to the provincial health department and the district administration once they are reported in the media.

The two accounts agree on the sequence of events: an operation at the Chunian hospital, a deterioration in the patient's condition, a transfer to Lahore, an ultrasound that showed the object, and a second operation to remove it. The only difference between them is the naming of the Lahore hospital, which ProPakistani gives as Lahore General Hospital and Minute Mirror does not specify.

The case follows a pattern of complaints about retained surgical items that surface periodically in Punjab's public hospitals. It was not immediately clear whether the Punjab health department had issued any separate order, or whether a first information report had been registered at a police station in Kasur.