CANTON, Ohio (AP) -- Relatives of a woman whose surgeon left a rolled-up towel inside her chest have filed a lawsuit against the clinic where the surgery was performed.

Bonnie Valle often complained about an odd feeling in her chest in the years following a procedure at the Cleveland Clinic, family members said.

"She always said, 'On the left side, it feels like there's something there. It felt like something moved,"' said her daughter, Jeanne Clark.

Doctors told Valle the symptoms reflected the progression of her emphysema and that the benefits of the surgery would not last forever, Clark said.

Here is the link:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Midwest/0....ap/index.html

-Demosthenes

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"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

This is a tragic story. Mistakes will happen, but the real negligence here is the failure to take the woman's complaints seriously after the surgery. Did the towel cause or hasten her death? That may never be known, but her family certainly is entitled to some compensation for their loved one's extra pain and suffering.

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"The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution."

- JFK

Sounds like a friviolous lawsuit to me.

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"George W. Bush surrounds himself with smart people the way a hole surrounds itself with a donut." —Dennis Miller