A woman who was in chronic pain for 18 months after undergoing a caesarean section discovered she had a surgical device the size of a dinner plate inside her abdomen.
AWR (The Alexis retractor) was left inside a New Zealand mother's womb after giving birth to her baby at Auckland City Hospital in 2020.
“The AWR, a device used to retract the edges of a wound during surgery, was left in her abdomen after the caesarean section. This caused the woman to have chronic abdominal pain until the device was accidentally discovered on an abdominal CT scan," a report by the Health and Disability Commissioner read.
The extra-large AWR, "about the size of a dinner plate" and designed to pull cuttings up to 17 cm in diameter, was not detected by X-rays.
The commissioner admitted that hospital staff involved in the operation were genuinely concerned and apologized after hearing about the woman's experience.
