A BUNGLING nurse who left a seven-inch pair of forceps sewn into a patient's body for more than a week has been struck off.
Scrub nurse Sau Loke, who was responsible for accounting for all instruments, said she was too busy to write down a checklist during an operation at Ealing Hospital.
The patient, RD, had been admitted for surgery on his abdomen on March 15, 2004 and towards the end of the four-hour operation, Loke was told to check all instruments.
But, after 15 minutes, the 62-year-old realised two pairs of forceps were missing and later claimed she found them on the floor.
The forceps were found nine days later after the man's condition 'rapidly deteriorated' and a scan revealed the seven-inch forceps facing his bowel.
He had emergency surgery on March 24 and an inquiry was launched by the hospital.
Sarah Page, for the Nursing and Midwifery Council, said: "It seems a count was interrupted by surgeons asking them to do various things. A short while after that Loke appeared with a disposal receiver which contained two sets of forceps.
"Her colleague didn't examine them. He accepted they must be the missing ones. By her own admissions, Mrs Loke said she would do the count on her own - though this was contrary to Trust policy.
"She didn't alert anyone about any problems with the instrument count or that any instruments were missing."
She was later dismissed from her job but made a 'similar mistake' last year after lying on an application form for a job at Queen Charlotte's Hospital.
The NMC panel said her fitness to practise was impaired and chairman Laurence Peterken said: "This was a senior nurse who was well aware of the protocol and procedures relating to her role.
"It was her responsibility to record and count the instruments used in surgery and she had a clear duty to stop the operation when she knew an instrument was missing.
"But she failed to do this and thereby put the patient at risk. The fact she then tried to cover up her failures shows she has little insight into her actions."
Loke of West Harrow, Middlesex, denied all charges, but the panel found her guilty of misconduct.
