Agonizing feeding tube was forgotten inside woman for 35 years, Wisconsin lawsuit says
For years after an emergency C-section and hysterectomy that put a Milwaukee woman on life support, she repeatedly found herself with unexplained abdominal pain, a lawsuit says.
She went through multiple colonoscopies and other visits to various doctors, but no medical professional could explain her pain — until 2024, according to the lawsuit filed Feb. 5 in Wisconsin Circuit Court.
The woman underwent a colon procedure in April, when the doctor pulled out a surgical feeding tube left in her body from her 1989 procedure, court documents said.
Now, the woman is suing the Mount Sinai Hospital in Milwaukee, renamed Aurora Sinai after it was purchased in 1992, accusing it of medical malpractice because the feeding tube unknowingly remained in her body for 35 years, the lawsuit said.
Aurora Health Care, the company that owns the hospital, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
1989 procedure
The woman went to Mount Sinai to deliver her twins via C-section in 1989, the lawsuit said.
She suffered severe complications during the procedure that resulted in the death of her two children as she endured a postpartum hemorrhage, according to court documents.
Due to the hemorrhage, she needed an “emergency total abdominal hysterectomy,” according to the lawsuit. She was placed on life support after the procedure and spent two months in the hospital.
The woman continued to experience abdominal pain for years after her procedure, but the source of the agony could not be explained by her doctors, the lawsuit said.
Search for answers
In 2010, the woman again went to a hospital with abdominal pain and was evaluated, the lawsuit said.
She also underwent colonoscopies in 2013 and 2023, but there was never an answer to her pain, according to the lawsuit.
She eventually had a colon procedure on April 17, 2024, when a doctor at Froedtert Hospital discovered the feeding tube that had been inside her abdomen for the last 35 years, the lawsuit said.
The doctor said this was likely the cause of her abdominal pain, among other health issues, according to the lawsuit.
“(The woman’s) suffering was entirely preventable,” her attorney B’Ivory LaMarr said in a statement. “This case is a glaring example of systemic failure within our healthcare system. No patient should endure decades of pain because of a preventable mistake hidden in plain sight.”
The unknown feeding tube in her body also created other complications that required more surgery, the lawsuit said.
The woman is asking for an undetermined amount of damages to be decided by a jury, according to court records.
This story was originally published February 7, 2025 at 2:35 PM with the headline "Agonizing feeding tube was forgotten inside woman for 35 years, Wisconsin lawsuit says."
