Northwestern McHenry hospital sued over claim sponge left inside patient’s neck after surgery

A man filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital for more than $50,000, claiming a surgical sponge was left inside his neck for four months, court records show.

Frank Kryzak, 71, filed a lawsuit last month against the hospital, located at 4201 Medical Centre Drive, along with surgeon Dr. Aqeel Sandhu, surgical technologist Meredith Garner and registered nurse Elizabeth Romanes, according to court documents filed at the McHenry County courthouse.

Kryzak underwent surgery Jan. 31, 2023, to remove a mass and “lymph node dissection” on the left side of his neck, according to the complaint filed by Michael Teich, the attorney representing Kryzak. In the weeks after the surgery, Kryzak experienced “swelling, pain, discharge and other signs and symptoms,” Teich said in the complaint.

Four months later, on May 31, 2023, a second surgery was performed, during which doctors found and removed a surgical sponge that had been left from the first surgery, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit asserts medical and institutional negligence and claims those who performed the operation failed to do a sponge count during the first surgery and left the sponge in Kryzak’s body after the surgical incision was closed. According to the complaint, Kryzak “sustained serious and permanent injury; experienced and will in the future experience significant pain and suffering, disability and loss of a normal life; incurred and will in the future incur medical expenses; and experienced delay in his medical care.”

“Mr. Kryzak was the victim of clear medical negligence and as a result he endured months of unnecessary pain and suffering, was forced to undergo a second surgery to remove the sponge and had his cancer treatment delayed,” Teich said in an email to the Northwest Herald.

A licensed physician wrote a report, filed by Teich in court, claiming that “negligence occurred.” On March 1, 2023, medical records state, Kryzak reported “green-tinted drainage from the incision site” and that no follow-up examinations were made after an initial post-operation visit Feb. 8, 2023, according to the report.

“It is difficult to understand why this patient’s retained surgical sponge went unrecognized and untreated for as long as it did,” the unnamed physician wrote in the report. “It is more likely than not that if Dr. Sandhu had performed adequate follow-up for this patient, the sponge would have been identified and removed sooner.”

A Northwestern Medicine representative could not be reached for comment.