A medical malpractice lawsuit was filed against Naval Hospital Jacksonville Tuesday after a woman claimed to have found a broken needle lodged in her spine from a C-section surgery that happened over 14 years ago.
Attorney Sean Cronin of Cronin & Maxwell filed the suit on Amy Bright's behalf, claiming that the facility covered up the medical mistake.
The lawsuit claims the hospital left the three-centimeter needle after Bright delivered her youngest son, Jacob, in September of 2003.
Bright said she started feeling pain in her back and leg immediately after his birth and it's continued for 14 years.
READ MORE >> Woman finds needle in her back, claims it's from surgery 14 years ago at Jacksonville hospital
“It feels like fire, like a poker next to my tailbone,” Bright said. “And then on occasion, it shoots down the left side of my leg on my calf, like my calf side, and then down and into my foot.”
Bright and her family have since resettled in Texas, and that’s where a CT scan four months ago revealed the needle lodged in her spine.
“I’m speechless that this was not disclosed to this woman,” Cronin said.
Cronin said there’s no way the hospital staff didn’t know the needle broke because the tips of needles are marked.
“When you pull out the needle, you look at the needle and make sure that tip is there,” Cronin said. “That’s missing.”
The lodged needle reportedly caused permanent nerve damage.
“It’s documented in her medical records that they had an unsuccessful spinal needle attempt at Naval Hospital Jacksonville in September of 2003,” Cronin said. “So no one else put a needle in her back.”
Both Cronin and Bright claim hospital staff never told Bright the needle lodged and broke in her spine, and it was never noted in her medical records.
Surgery to remove the needle is extremely risky, so she’ll likely have to live the rest of her life with the needle in place.