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Serious Medical Errors in Britain: Gloves Left Inside Patients and Accidental Organ Removal

The total number of health safety incidents for the year is 403 cases (Shutterstock)  
The total number of health safety incidents for the year is 403 cases (Shutterstock)  
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Serious Medical Errors in Britain: Gloves Left Inside Patients and Accidental Organ Removal

The total number of health safety incidents for the year is 403 cases (Shutterstock)  
The total number of health safety incidents for the year is 403 cases (Shutterstock)  

Among 403 patient safety incidents in England, 17 cases had a procedure intended for another patient, one patient who had an organ or body part wrongly removed, and two who were left with surgical gloves inside them, according to Sky News.

Hundreds of National Health Service (NHS) patients have been harmed due to errors that should never have occurred, including operations on the wrong body part and medical objects being left inside them, new data shows.

Annual figures from NHS England show that there were 403 “never events” for the year from April 2025 to March this year, according to an analysis by the Press Association.

Never events are patient safety incidents that are so serious that they should never happen and are preventable.

There were 166 incidents related to wrong site surgery, including 17 people who had a procedure intended for another patient, and 40 where treatments were to the wrong side or part of the body.

In one case, a patient had an organ or body part removed when the plan had been to conserve it.

Overall, 121 of the never events related to foreign objects being left in patients after procedures or surgery, including 26 cases of guide wires, two cases of cotton wool balls, one nasal pack, and one of a central catheter line.

Two cases involved surgical gloves, 22 were surgical instruments, five were surgical needles, 21 were surgical swabs, and 32 were vaginal swabs.

The data also showed there were eight cases where patients received a procedure that was not part of the surgical plan.

There were four other cases where the patient had the wrong procedure altogether.

Six people suffered incisions to the wrong part of the body, and 30 received injections in the wrong place.

In addition, 38 patients had nerve blocks given on the wrong side and 22 had the wrong skin lesion removed or the incorrect biopsy.

An NHS spokesperson said: “NHS staff work exceptionally hard to keep patients safe and incidents like these are extremely rare, but when they do occur NHS trusts are required to investigate what has happened and take effective steps to learn from them and make improvements.”

 

 

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Harvard Agrees to Pay $53 Mn after Morgue Manager Sold Body Parts

FILE PHOTO: Students walk past Widener Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, November 19, 2025. REUTERS/Reba Saldanha/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Students walk past Widener Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, November 19, 2025. REUTERS/Reba Saldanha/File Photo
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Harvard Agrees to Pay $53 Mn after Morgue Manager Sold Body Parts

FILE PHOTO: Students walk past Widener Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, November 19, 2025. REUTERS/Reba Saldanha/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Students walk past Widener Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, November 19, 2025. REUTERS/Reba Saldanha/File Photo

Harvard University has agreed to pay a $53 million settlement after its former morgue manager stole and sold body parts donated for scientific research, with a Boston court reportedly approving the plan on Tuesday.

Cedric Lodge, who managed the morgue at the prestigious Harvard Medical School before being fired in 2023, was sentenced to eight years in prison in December after pleading guilty to trafficking stolen remains.

Investigators said Lodge and his wife took body parts from the school "without the knowledge or permission of his employer, the donor, or the donor's family" and shipped them to buyers in other states since 2018.

According to AFP, Harvard University said in a letter on Monday that it will seek the court's permission to set up "two class action settlement funds totaling $53 million."

"We are grateful to be working together with the plaintiffs to move forward in a way that prioritizes support for families and the (organ donation program) and avoids prolonged litigation," read the letter co-signed by Harvard Medical School Dean George Daley and Bernard Chang, dean for medical education.

Lodge's violations "were despicable, abhorrent, and a flagrant betrayal of our values as a medical community," they said.

"We reaffirm our deep sorrow and empathy for the families of donors who may have been impacted."

A Boston state court judge gave preliminary approval to the settlement plan on Tuesday, US media reported.

Harvard said the process of distributing funds is expected to take several months.

Lodge's wife Denise was earlier sentenced to one year in prison.

Six other co-conspirators who bought remains from Lodge have also pleaded guilty and received sentences.

The Harvard Medical School will set up an annual financial aid scholarship starting in the 2027-28 academic year "in appreciation and in honor of all of our anatomical donors," the school said.

The settlement plan also includes a pledge by the school to provide a statement to the claimant families condemning Lodge's criminal acts, and to detail improvements made to the organ donation program.

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Chinese Space Program Pioneer Liu Jiyuan Dies at 93

Commuters ride past the Tiananmen Square in Beijing on August 18, 2026. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP)
Commuters ride past the Tiananmen Square in Beijing on August 18, 2026. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP)
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Chinese Space Program Pioneer Liu Jiyuan Dies at 93

Commuters ride past the Tiananmen Square in Beijing on August 18, 2026. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP)
Commuters ride past the Tiananmen Square in Beijing on August 18, 2026. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP)

A pioneer of China's aerospace program, Liu Jiyuan, died in Beijing aged 93 after an illness, the main space contractor said on Wednesday.

In a career of nearly four decades from 1960, Liu worked on, and ⁠led development of, ⁠control systems for China's first generation of strategic weapons and launch vehicles.

Born in 1933, Liu died ⁠on Monday due to illness, the contractor, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said.

The expert in missile and rocket control technology was deputy commander of the manned space program in 1992 before heading the ⁠newly ⁠set-up National Space Administration from 1993 until he retired in 1999.

His death follows the August 12 demise of Wang Xiji, who led the development of China's first sounding rocket.

Varieties

Italian Scientists Bet on Octopus to Fight Crab Invasion

Live blue crabs harvested by local fishermen in the Po river are seen in a waste bucket at Scardovari, Italy, northeast Italy, on June 26, 2026. (AFP)
Live blue crabs harvested by local fishermen in the Po river are seen in a waste bucket at Scardovari, Italy, northeast Italy, on June 26, 2026. (AFP)
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Italian Scientists Bet on Octopus to Fight Crab Invasion

Live blue crabs harvested by local fishermen in the Po river are seen in a waste bucket at Scardovari, Italy, northeast Italy, on June 26, 2026. (AFP)
Live blue crabs harvested by local fishermen in the Po river are seen in a waste bucket at Scardovari, Italy, northeast Italy, on June 26, 2026. (AFP)

From a fishing trawler in the Adriatic, Italian scientists gently release thousands of tiny octopuses in the hope of fighting an invasive crab species that has devastated local fisheries.

A team from the University of Bologna is betting that the common octopus can help contain the burgeoning population of blue crab -- a voracious crustacean that has ravaged shellfish production in the Adriatic.

"We chose the octopus because, in the wild, it is a formidable predator of crustaceans," Antonio Casalini, one of the researchers, told AFP.

Native to the North American Atlantic coast, blue crabs arrived in the Mediterranean decades ago, likely transported via ballast water from ships.

But their numbers have ballooned in recent years, with the government and fishing groups linking the boom to warming waters and climate change.

With sharp, blue-tinted claws that are particularly apt at prying open shells, they have wreaked havoc in Italy's northeast -- one of Europe's top clam producing regions.

Authorities in Bologna's Emilia-Romagna region said last year the species has caused almost 17 million euros ($20 million) in damages there since 2022.

Farming and fishing group Coldiretti has put the figure at about 200 million for the whole of Italy, with the northern Veneto region also badly affected.

"It eats everything including young clams lying on the seabed," said Davide Sanulli a fishermen and mussels farmer with thick eyebrows and grizzled hair, said of the crab.

In lagoon-like areas off the Po River delta "it has caused a massacre", added the 64-year-old, who is helping the university project.

Excellent swimmers and weighing up to one kilogram (2.2 pounds), the crabs have few natural predators -- something the researchers are hoping to change.

- Crab-eaters -

Launched last year and funded by the Emilia-Romagna region, the "Octo-Blu" project seeks to increase octopus numbers as a counterweight to the hard-shelled invaders.

The team breeds octopus hatchlings in white water tanks at a lab in the port town of Cesenatico.

When ready, the tiny invertebrates are scooped out by the thousands into a large plastic bag and taken out to sea, sometimes using Sanulli's rugged blue fishing boat.

The hatchlings are then released near underwater reefs where the group has laid cement-and-clay artificial dens to help the octopuses thrive.

Some 80,000 have been let out since June, an amount the research team is seeking to double by the end of August, hoping to see a few grow into fully developed octopuses.

"The idea is to establish a small community close to shore so that it can better combat the spread of the blue crab," said Casalini, an aquaculture technician.

The project has some clear drawbacks.

The common octopus is not prone to live in the sandy, warm waters typical of the lagoon areas where the blue crab is making the most damage, making its potential impact there negligible -- something the researchers are well aware of.

Other experts have suggested that seabass could be more effective at crab-fighting and the Bologna University team is also looking at eels, which are avid eaters of crustacean eggs, to complement the octopus's efforts.

Yet, if replicated, the pilot could still help limit blue crab numbers and the related impact on the Adriatic coast's marine environment, Casalini said.

"Blue crabs have an incredible reproductive potential and fertility rate," said Pietro Emmanuele, another University of Bologna researcher, noting a single crab lays millions of eggs, most of which hatch.

Although only some hatchlings reach adulthood, were an octopus to catch even a single female, it would make a difference, he said.