Nelson E. Bailey learned the hard and painful way that a cure can sometimes be worse than the disease. After having surgery last October for diverticulitis, a digestive disease of the large intestine, the 67-year-old found his stomach pain only became more pronounced following his operation at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Palm Beach.

While doctors tried to fathom what was possibly wrong with Bailey, they eventually decided to open him up again a full five months after his initial surgery. What they found there was shocking.

Inside Bailey's stomach, was a 12-by-12 inch surgical sponge festering inside his body that had been left there during his initial surgery. The respected veteran judge was angry and obviously not someone the hospital would like to face in court. The hospital reportedly reached a settlement with Bailey for an undisclosed amount of money.

Recent reports state that approximately 1 500 patients in the U.S find themselves in the same position as Bailey every year - where they end up having to be re-operated on because foreign matter had been left behind in the initial surgery. Surgical sponges being the most common item left behind, though not all are as large as the one found in Bailey. After having been left inside his stomach for five months, there was no doubt that the sponge had caused some serious damage. As the sponge had started to rot, it created perforations in Baileys intestines, so that when they removed the sponge, they had to remove a section of his intestine as well.

Assuming this was a major mistake, the left-behind sponge wasn’t the only error the hospital had made when treating Bailey. He was also given the wrong post-operative medication.

Instead of prescribing the misfortunate veteran with medication to lower his blood pressure, doctors gave Bailey pills that speeded up his heart rate, so much so that he nearly had a heart attack as well.

The bearded Bailey says the surgical error has interfered with his livelihood as a speaker and entertainer and he hasn’t finished pursuing his legal options. The man who says his quality of life has been damaged served notice to two radiologists of his intent to sue and allegedly said he had plans to sue his surgeon as well.

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