Russian woman walks around for 23 years with surgical clamp in her stomach

A Russian woman has discovered that she has been walking around with a metal surgical clamp in her belly for 23 years. It was left there after a caesarean section at the Republican Clinical Hospital in Vladikavkaz, the capital of the Russian republic of North Ossetia.

62-year-old Ezeta Gobeeva has been in pain for years. The doctors blamed liver problems and prescribed painkillers.

The woman had a caesarean section in 1996 and the six-centimeter-long clamp has remained in her body ever since. The woman from North Ossetia finally had an X-ray taken to determine the cause of her abdominal pain.

Gobeeva was crying when doctors showed her the X-ray. The radiographer thought she had scissors in her pocket but soon realized there was a metal tool in the woman’s belly, says the patient to the British newspaper Daily Mail.

“You have scissors in you,” she said to Gobeeva. “‘What scissors?”I asked. She showed me the X-ray, and I don’t remember anything after that. I was hysterical. All these years, I was tortured.”

“You have scissors in you,” she told Gobeeva. “Which scissors?” I asked. She showed me the x-ray and I don’t remember anything afterward. I was hysterical. All those years I was tortured.”

Scandal

The Russian has yet to get rid of the surgical clamp, which looks like scissors. She’s waiting for surgery to remove these. “These pains were terrible. I’m still on medication.”

The Ministry of Health in the North Ossetia-Alania region confirms to the local newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda that there is an internal investigation into the scandal. “The investigation is ongoing. The minister personally monitors the situation,” says spokeswoman Irina Abaeva.

The authorities reimburse all medical costs for the operations to remove the clamp and the Russian woman is also expected to receive financial compensation.