Clamp and surgical gauze left inside two surgery patients in Hong Kong hospital

A Hong Kong private hospital has been asked to explain why it failed to promptly notify the city’s health authorities about two incidents in which medical instruments and material were left inside patients after their procedures.

In the first case, a microvascular clamp was found inside a 63-year-old patient who had undergone an operation to remove his lower jaw at the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital in Happy Valley on October 14 last year. The clamp was 1mm in diameter, a hospital spokeswoman said.