It's not a tumour, it's a towel

04/06/2008


Tokyo - Doctors who carried out surgery on a Japanese man to remove a "tumour" had good news and bad news for him. He did not have cancer - but the "growth" that had been causing him pain was in fact a 25-year-old surgical towel.

The patient had been carrying the cloth since 1983, when surgeons at the Asahi General Hospital in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo left it in him after an operation to treat an ulcer, a spokesperson for the hospital said.

The man, now 49, went in to another hospital in late May after suffering abdominal pain.

When examinations found what was believed to be an 8cm tumour, he underwent the operation to remove it. It was only then that surgeons realised it was a towel.

"The towel was greenish blue although we are not sure about its original colour," the Asahi General Hospital spokesperson said, adding it had been crumpled to the size of a softball.

Asahi hospital officials visited the man and apologised, he said.

The former patient has no plans to sue the hospital, which is in talks with him over compensation or other measures, the official said.

Japanese media reports said the man, who was not identified, still had his spleen removed.

oops, medical malpractice... but at least, it wasn't a tumor.. though that would be dangerous to his health..

i feel sorry for the man although it is kinda funny that they didn't realise until the sugery. (advance technology should've picked up that it was a towel)

Wow, a towel?...

At least it wasn't a knife or a pair of scissors(I think I saw something about this on tv)