Veteran Sues VA Department For Surgery That Left Scalpel In His Body

A veteran filed a lawsuit against a Connecticut hospital claiming a scalpel was left in his body for four years after his surgery, reports said Monday. Faxon Law Group filed the lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs on behalf of 61-year-old United States Army veteran Glenford Turner, who had his cancerous prostate removed in robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven Campus in 2013. Turner's lawyer, Joel Faxon told the Boston Globe that the surgery took five hours instead of the one hour it should have taken. There was no standard measure of X-ray performed afterward to ensure that no surgical materials had been left behind. Turner returned to the VA hospital on March 29, 2017 for an MRI after complaining of dizziness and long-term abdominal pain.