Strange Times

what the ever loving fucking christ

The woman complained of severe chronic pain for months after the birth of her child, and doctors eventually discovered that an Alexis wound retractor — a round, soft tubular device used to draw back the edges of a wound during surgery — had been accidentally left inside her during the operation.

The woman complained of the pain to her doctor several times and on one occasion went to the emergency department of Auckland Hospital, in New Zealand's largest city.

18 months. EIGHTEEN MONTHS they ignored her complaints. Because she’s a plus-sized woman. An average-sized man complaining about similar pain would have been seen and treated so, so much sooner. In fact, when the exact same thing happened to a man, it was found two weeks later.

A man underwent emergency surgery to treat a perforated colon, during which an Alexis wound retractor was fully inserted into his abdomen and not removed, causing him pain and nausea before it was removed more than two weeks later.

My personal anecdote. I wound up in the ER with excruciating abdominal pain, I could not walk, I couldn’t move any muscle in my legs or torso without almost passing out from pain. I felt like I was being stabbed and shocked through my vagina to my belly button. The response? “Some periods get really bad. Here’s 800 mg of ibuprofen, that’ll be $2000, go home.” I (unknowingly) had endometriosis, my right ovary was adhered to my abdominal wall via scar tissue, and I was hemorrhaging internally from a large ovarian “chocolate” (blood) cyst.

My husband went to the ER because his finger hurt when he closed his fist. They sat and listened to him for 15 minutes (I got less than 5 minutes before being interrupted), and sent him home with a temporary cast and instructions to follow up with various doctors.