More than 550 objects have been unintentionally left in Canadian medical and surgery patients between 2016 and 2018, and the problem appears to be getting worse. A new report released Thursday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information says 553 sponges, medical instruments and other objects were left in patients over that period.
… That’s a 14 percent increase between the most recent data collected 2017-2018 and statistics collected five years earlier, and more than two times the average rate of 12 reporting countries, including Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway, which had the next highest rates.