Health Alert

LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― An investigation by CBS station KCBS-TV has brought to light a series of medical mistakes at Los Angeles hospitals detailed in California state files detailing the most serious medical error.

"That's where they went in and removed the sponges," patient Ed Ornelas told KCBS. "His words -- I won't forget them -- he said, 'there's a foreign object in you and we think it might be a sponge.'"

Safiya Baidi has a baby mistakenly aborted. "They said there was nothing they could do," said Baidi. "It was a misdiagnosis and a mistake."

Patient Robbie Munoz had pain in his knee - but after seeking help, doctors ended up operating on the wrong knee. "I was really dumbfounded how a mistake like this could be made," he said.

In July 2008, California medical centers were ordered by the state to report the worst types of medical mistakes.

A KCBS investigation found 172 cases statewide of foreign objects left in patients, 28 instances of surgery performed on the wrong body part and 13 cases of the wrong surgical procedure performed on a patient; all totaled -- 1,224 medical errors over 12 months. That is an average of more than 100 a month.

Consumer watchdog Jerry Flanagan points to 27 categories of mistakes called the "never 27," events which should never happen due to the harm they cause to patients.

In the case of Munoz, the aspiring boxer went to St. Joseph's Hospital in Orange, Calif., for arthroscopic surgery on his knee.

"The knee that I had pain in was the left knee," he said.

The nurse put her initials above his left knee before the operation. But Munoz awoke to find a bandage on his right knee. The doctor had made a mistake.

"I didn't really believe that something like this could happen until it happened to me," recalled Munoz.

St. Joseph's reported the incident to the state as required by law. Investigators determined the violation was likely to cause serious injury or death, and the hopsital was fined the maximum amount of $25,000.

Apparently not all hospitals comply with the rules. Safiya Baidi was eight weeks pregnant when doctors at California Hospital in downtown L.A. aborted her baby when they thought it was developing outside the womb.

Further testing showed the doctor was wrong. A nurse broke the news.

"She finally told me it was misdiagnosed and mistake," said Baidi. "A doctor finally showed up and I said, 'are you sure?' I was devastated."

Ed Ornelas still wipes away tears when he thinks of almost dying from an emergency appendectomy. The retired LAPD officer had to undergo another surgery after doctors realized they left five sponges inside.

"I was upset, scared, I just couldn't understand how a doctor -- a professional -- could do that," said Ornelas.

The incident happened at South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach, Calif. The hospital never reported it to the state, as they are required by law. State health officials are now investigating after a KCBS reporter brought it to their attention.

KCBS found the hospitals with the most medical mistakes in in the Los Angeles area were:

* San Antonio Community Hospital in Upland, Calif. -- 5 mistakes

* Hoag Memorial in Newport Beach, Calif. -- 5 mistakes

* Olive View-UCLA in Sylmar, Calif. -- 4 mistakes

* Saddleback Memorial in Laguna Hills, Calif. -- 4 mistakes

KCBS has begun a database of hopital and medical center errors on its Web site, along with posting responses from the hospitals under investigation.

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