“What is this?”: Woman has a C-section while giving birth. Now she says something was left inside her
This mom gave birth more than a year ago. So why is there something still moving around in her stomach?
Was something left inside this mom after surgery?
In a trending video with more than 56,000 views, mom Marie (@mariewimb) accused the surgeon who delivered her baby of leaving something inside of her after surgery.
Now she's calling on the doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals on TikTok to help her get a straight answer.
Marie explains that she had a C-section fifteen months ago, and it seemed to go fine. She didn't have any complications or major scarring.
Now, 15 months postpartum, she felt a lump in her stomach that had her running to the doctor. During a follow-up ultrasound, the technician found something that wasn't supposed to be there.
"My doctor was freaked out. The ultrasound technician was freaked out," Marie says.
It was so bad that they were calling their colleagues over to take a look, she adds.
"I'm kinda thinking something was left in there during my c-section," Marie says, adding that the object was hard and about two inches wide and seemed to be floating inside her abdomen.
What did the doctor say?
"My doctor told me he has no idea what it is and was absolutely shocked after examining me. He said he didn’t think I needed to be inpatient right now since I wasn’t in any pain and he was sending orders for a CT," Marie explained in the caption of a follow-up video.
"Please ask any questions and tell me your ideas!"
In another follow-up, Marie showed that when she presses down on her stomach, the lump moves in a peculiar way. When she pushes it, a mass moves and then settles back down.
To make matters worse, it seems Marie never even wanted to give birth by C-section and instead had to do it after being in labor for 42 hours.
@mariewimb i’m waiting to get called to schedule a ct scan so give me your best guess 🥲#fyp #doctorsoftiktok #whatisit #nursesoftiktok #ultrasoundtech #surgerytiktok #greenscreen ♬ original sound - marie🫶🏻
Marie noted in the caption of her initial clip that she's scheduling a CT scan to get a better understanding of what's exactly in her stomach.
How often are surgical materials left inside patients?
If that does happen to be the case, it certainly isn't the first time a surgeon has left something behind in a patient.
As gruesome as it sounds, items get left inside patients more often than you might think.
In the United States, about a dozen sponges and other surgical instruments are left in a patient's body every day, resulting in about 4,500 to 6,000 cases a year, as reported by CNN in 2018. (This count may not be accurate since there are no federal requirements to report such incidents.)
A 2003 study found that about 70% of the items left in a person's body after surgery were sponges, and the other 30% were surgical items like clamps and retractors. A major operation could easily use 50 to 100 sponges.
Having these foreign objects in your body can cause pain, bloating, sepsis, and even death.
It's more likely to happen during high-stress situations, like in an emergency surgery or when there's an unplanned change in the operation.
Commenters react
"If they were freaking out, why didn’t they put you in for emergency surgery to remove it?" a top comment read.
"The first one, the bigger black circle, just looks like the bladder and the uterus underneath with the green color. Black usually indicates fluid, though. I hated rotation through ultrasound, too fuzzy and black and white. Keep us poste,d though! Interested to know what they find out. I’m hoping it's just scar tissue you are feeling!" a person theorized.
"Ultrasound tech for 40 years, looks like a hematoma possibly! Good luck!" another said.
The Daily Dot reached out to Marie for comment via TikTok direct message and comment.
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The post “What is this?”: Woman has a C-section while giving birth. Now she says something was left inside her appeared first on The Daily Dot.