Mondot v. Vallejo General Hospital

MUSSELL, J.

This is an action for damages alleged to have been caused by the negligence of defendant F. Burton Jones, a physician and surgeon, in that on or about the 5th day of April, 1937, in the course of an operation upon plaintiff Mary Mondot and after opening plaintiff’s abdominal cavity, said defendant “negligently and carelessly lost and left and caused and permitted to be left in plaintiff’s body a piece of rubber, plastic or foreign material and did close the incision with said piece of rubber, plastic or other foreign material remaining in plaintiff’s abdomen.” A jury trial resulted in a verdict in favor of the defendants after the trial court directed the jury to return such a verdict and plaintiffs appeal from the judgment entered in accordance therewith.

In December, 1936, plaintiff Mary Mondot, at the request of her family doctor, entered the Scripps Metabolic Clinic at La Jolla for a physical examination. After examination and study, the clinic reported she was suffering from an ovarian deficiency due to some pelvic inflammatory process, then quiescent. On April 5, 1937, defendant F. Burton Jones performed an abdominal operation on her to correct the position of her uterus and to free adhesions. Dr. Jones testified in this connection that he found that the entire pelvis was filled with a mass of adhesions which anchored the uterus tightly; that these were “freed-up” sufficiently to do the work that was necessary to replace the uterus to its normal position; that the tubes and ovaries were “freed-up” and that an appendectomy was also performed prior to closing due to the fact they found considerable adhesions and some evidence of chronic scarring

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about the appendix; that he used surgical gloves and that before closing, a sponge count was made by the nurse.

For several years subsequent to this operation plaintiff suffered pain and discomfort. During 1938-1940 she developed nagging back pains an inch or two above the bottom of her spine and on July 24, 1953, her coccyx was removed, after which she was relieved of the back pains for a time but later they became worse. On January 31, 1953, plaintiff first met Dr. Frank J. Ragen, who treated her for urinary tract infection. She was admitted to the Chula Vista Hospital on April 3, 1953, with a diagnosis of lumbosacral strain and, upon her entry to the hospital, Dr. Ragen reported that in his examination he found abdomen and pelvic regions normal and there was nothing to indicate that she had a cyst on the adnexa, such as appeared when he operated on January 25, 1955. In May, 1953, she had a cautery to her cervix for a cervical discharge and in November had a hemorrhoidectomy. On July 7, 1954, Dr. Ragen performed an operation on plaintiff for repair of the eystocele (a herniation or collapse of the urinary bladder—a stretching of the ligaments or deterioration of the material which holds the bladder in an upright position). This operation was performed by entering the vaginal opening and making an inverted “T” shaped incision through the mucosa of the cervix on the anterior portion, separating the mucosa, and realigning or drawing them together so as to shorten and make a stronger covering. Following this operation plaintiff had some bleeding and was taken back to surgery. The bleeding was controlled by.a product known as oxycel (a synthetic or plastic used to stop bleeding—a cloth-like substance which is placed in the wound to absorb the blood and is left to absorb itself.) In this connection the doctor testified that he used oxycel in the operation.