Westwood Woman Sues UCLA, Says Needle Sat Inside Her for 12 Years After Birth

A 47-year-old woman has sued the Regents of the University of California, alleging that a surgical needle was negligently left inside her body after she gave birth at UCLA Medical Center in August 2012 and remained there, undetected, for more than a dozen years. The needle was not discovered until diagnostic imaging found it in May 2025, and it was surgically removed the following July, according to the lawsuit.

Lawsuit Details Years of Unexplained Pain

The woman's complaint, filed in Santa Monica Superior Court, alleges that UCLA had knowledge of the missing surgical instrument but failed to take appropriate action to locate and remove it, as reported by MyNewsLA.com. According to the suit, she was told her discomfort was attributable to her age rather than being investigated as a possible surgical complication. The complaint states she was never informed a needle had been left inside her.

Over the years that followed her delivery, the woman experienced pain during intimacy and while using the restroom, conditions the lawsuit says were directly caused by the retained needle. The suit alleges UCLA failed to timely diagnose and treat the condition despite her ongoing symptoms. It was not until diagnostic imaging in May 2025 that the needle was finally located, more than a dozen years after the birth described in the complaint.

Why the Case Can Still Be Filed More Than a Decade Later

California medical malpractice claims are typically bound by a strict three-year statute of limitations, but state law carves out a specific exception for cases like this one. Under California Code of Civil Procedure Section 340.5, the three-year deadline is explicitly tolled when a foreign body with no therapeutic or diagnostic purpose is left inside a patient, according to FindLaw. That provision is why a lawsuit over a 2012 delivery remains legally viable in 2026, since the clock effectively starts when the object is discovered rather than when it was implanted.

The complaint, filed against the UC Regents, seeks unspecified damages and prejudgment interest, and alleges the woman suffered monetary and emotional distress damages as a result of the retained needle. A UCLA representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the lawsuit, per the same account. The Regents of the University of California serve as the legal entity responsible for managing liability claims and funding settlements across the UC health system, including UCLA Health facilities, according to a University of California financial report.

Retained Objects Are the Leading Cause of California Surgical 'Never Events'

Cases like this one are not isolated within California's hospital system. A study published in JAMA Network Open that analyzed California Department of Public Health data from 2007 to 2017 found that retained foreign objects accounted for 66.2 percent, or 94 of 142, of all reported surgical “never events” across accredited hospitals statewide, according to research indexed on PubMed. Health authorities define never events as grave medical errors considered wholly preventable through standard safety protocols.

Obstetric procedures carry particular risk for this type of error. Research published in the Journal of International Medical Research found that open-cavity surgeries carry the highest risk of retained surgical items, with cesarean sections accounting for roughly 17.9 percent of all such occurrences, according to findings hosted on PMC. High blood loss and emergency delivery conditions during obstetric care can increase the risk that surgical teams miscount instruments before closing a surgical site.

Federal Guidance Places Responsibility on Operating Room Counting Procedures

Needles and sponges are facility-supplied tools intentionally brought into the surgical field, and their retention represents a direct failure of operating room counting and reconciliation procedures, according to guidance from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality updated in 2024 and published through AHRQ PSNet. Standard protocols call for multiple physical counts of all sharp items both before and after a surgical site is closed.

Retained sharps left in place for extended periods can produce serious long-term complications. A national operating room study found that retained items such as needles can cause chronic tissue inflammation, localized nerve injury, and severe chronic pain requiring secondary invasive surgery, according to research published on ResearchGate. Retained objects can also migrate through soft tissue over time, compounding inflammation and nerve irritation the longer they go undetected.

State Regulators Have Fined Other Hospitals Over Similar Failures

California health regulators have a track record of penalizing hospitals for surgical counting failures. The state has issued administrative fines to Kern Medical Center and Adventist Health Hanford after surgical instruments were left inside patients, according to Becker's Hospital Review. Under state licensing regulations, hospitals are required to report retained surgical items as adverse events and can face administrative fines for noncompliance with counting policies.

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center delivers approximately 2,000 babies per year and serves as a primary regional referral center in Southern California for complex, high-risk maternal and obstetric care, according to UCLA Health. UCLA Health hospitals were also named among the top maternity medical centers nationally, ranked number one in Los Angeles by U.S. News & World Report and Newsweek in 2025 hospital rankings. It remains unclear how the alleged counting failure occurred at a facility with that level of institutional recognition, and the litigation is expected to test what documentation, if any, UCLA staff had regarding the missing instrument at the time of the 2012 delivery.