A doctor has been criticised for piercing a woman's bowel instead of her uterus in a report released today.
The Health and Disability report said a 46-year-old woman consented to get a vaginal hysterectomy at a public hospital after experiencing frequent and excessive bleeding. During the procedure attempts by the obstetrician and gynaecologist to open the pouch of Douglas, an extension of the peritoneal cavity located between the back wall of the uterus and the rectum, failed. She then accidentally identified the woman's bowel as the pouch and tried to open it creating a hole in her bowel.
The doctor stopped the procedure and asked a colleague for help. Because of difficulties with the vaginal hysterectomy they converted the procedure to a abdominal hysterectomy.
A surgeon was contacted to repair the woman's bowel. The surgeon was unsure about closing the hole entirely so made a loop colostomy also known as a stoma. The abdominal hysterectomy was then completed.
After the surgery it is not recorded that the doctor told the woman about the surgical error and it was more than a month before the woman fully understood what had happened to her. The doctor and patient have a different recollection of what was said after the surgery.