A man from Swindon said he has suffered various health issues after plastic tubing was left in his body following brain surgery. 51-year-old Kennedy Mugovera told BBC that he had the procedure at the University College London Hospital in 2016.
Three years prior to that, he had been at the hospital for the first time for a surgery where a shunt (a narrow piece of tubing) was inserted into his brain to relieve pressure on the brain but the procedure did not work.
He went back three years later to replace the shunt. Three months later, officials at the hospital informed him that they had lost a “small tube” during the second procedure. Since then, Mugovera said he has been left with severe pain, and he blames this on the tubing left in his body.
“Ever since the surgery I have had severe pain in my abdomen and my lower back and every time I tried to make contact with the hospital I struggled to get an appointment,” he told BBC.
After finding it difficult to get an appointment with the NHS for medical attention, Mugovera, who works as a nurse, traveled to his homeland Zimbabwe, where he visited a hospital for an x-ray. Doctors found that the tubing was near the vertebrae in his spine.
They also found that it wasn’t a small tube as doctors in the London hospital had told him, Mugovera said. He is now back to his nursing duties and would want to know if the tubes can be removed and how his current situation would affect him in the future.
“I have tried on numerous occasions to clarify details around why the tube was left behind but I have had no answer,” he said.
Meanwhile, the University College London Hospital said it has been trying to schedule a meeting with Mugovera but it has not been successful.
“We are sorry to hear Mr Mugovera is experiencing discomfort following his surgery,” it said in a statement cited by BBC. “We have been in contact with him on a number of occasions and have offered a meeting with his neuro-surgical team,” the hospital added.
