Never Events

Surgeons call them "never events", because they are [supposed:suggested] to never happen: things like [leaving:having] a piece of [equipment:shipment] in someone or removing the wrong body part. But despite major efforts to reduce medical errors, these "never events" still occur more than 4,000 times each year in the U.S. That finding is in the journal Surgery. Researchers sifted through thousands of malpractice claims. They found surgeons leave a [foreign:weird] object inside at least 39 patients each week. And wrong procedures or incorrect site [surgeries:emergencies] each occur 20 or more times per week. Such [incidents:ingredient] are obviously preventable.