Medical Students Find Towel Left In Woman's Chest
Woman Donates Body To College
POSTED: 10:57 am EDT August 6, 2004
CANTON, Ohio -- For seven years before her death, Bonnie Valle told her family and her doctors she had an odd feeling in her chest.
The feeling turned out to be a surgical towel that had been left behind during a 1995 surgery and wasn't found until a year after her death, when medical students opened her chest cavity.
Valle's daughter, Jeanne Clark, says her mother donated her body to the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine in Rootstown, Ohio, because she hoped doctors would be able to learn more about the emphysema that killed her.
Last week, Clark filed suit against the Cleveland Clinic, her mother's doctor, Jeffrey Miller, and his practice. The lawsuit alleges the towel caused serious complications, additional medical bills and, ultimately, her death.
Clinic spokesman Cole Hatcher said the hospital doesn't comment on pending lawsuits.
