The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland has described incidents in which operating implements were left inside people's bodies as "extremely rare".
The college was commenting after an inquest in Dublin on Thursday was told that a woman died from complications after teflon was left in her heart during an angioplasty procedure. Ms Loretta Foy, of Main Street, Chapelizod, Dublin, died of a heart attack at St James's Hospital after a clot formed around the teflon lining of a catheter which had been used in the procedure.
The registrar of the RCSI, Prof Kevin O'Malley, said there were strict procedures governing the counting of implements and surgical swabs used in operations. St James's Hospital was unable to provide a spokesman to comment yesterday.