Woman dies from toilet brush lodged in buttock

A UK mother has died after doctors failed to identify a 15 centimetre toilet brush handle embedded in her buttock, an inquest has heard.

Cindy Corton sustained the injury after falling in a friend's bathroom in 2005 while she was drunk, the Sun reports.

It took the 35-year-old two years to convince doctors the plastic handle was lodged in the flesh of her bottom despite a series of consultations.

What should have been a relatively simple procedure to remove the foreign body had now turned into a high-risk operation as the object had moved to the woman's pelvis.

Following two unsuccessful operations to remove the handle in 2007, the mother-of-one agreed to a third surgery in a bid to ease her constant pain even though she was told any attempt to remove the plastic handle could prove fatal.

Mrs Corton spent ten hours in surgery before dying from blood loss.

Her husband told the inquest his wife was sent home after her first hospital visit with nothing more than painkillers, despite showing doctors the wound on her backside.

Four days later, X-rays failed to locate the foreign object.

"She wasn't properly examined by the doctor at Lincoln," Mr Corton said.

"At Grantham she wasn't examined properly again."

"This was unsatisfactory. The failures to investigate sufficiently in the first place at Lincoln and Grantham were a major factor in Cindy suffering."

"This could have been prevented by early location and removal of the foreign body which would have been a simple procedure at the time."

A coroner said the first doctor to examine Mrs Corton should have sought a second opinion.

"Surely if it was not picked up on the x-ray you don't abandon this woman and send her home with a few tablets," he said.

"It was a significant foreign object. It is difficult to imagine anything more significant."

"My view is that this failure to pursue further medical inquiries at this stage was a very serious error on his part."