Mom Discovers Epidural Needle in Her Spine—14 Years After Giving Birth

Here’s a horror story absolutely no mom wants to live through: 14 years after having a c-section, a Florida woman discovered she still has the epidural needle lodged in in her spine.

Amy Bright of Jacksonville, FL, tells WTLV she noticed the pain immediately after delivering her youngest son Jacob, back at Naval Hospital Jacksonville in September 2003. But until recently, after more than a decade of constant back and leg pain, doctors had never been able to identify the cause.

“It feels like fire, like a poker next to my tailbone,” she told WTLV. “On occasion, it shoots down the left side of my leg on my calf, and then down and into my foot.”

Finally, four months ago, a CT scan Bright received in Texas—where the family has since moved—gave her the answer she’d been searching for: a three centimeter epidural needle had broken off and lodged in her spine all those years ago.

What’s worse, Bright and her attorney Sean Cronin say no one on the medical staff ever informed her of what had happened. They also failed to record the incident in her medical records, though they did document “an unsuccessful spinal needle attempt.”

“So no one else put that needle in her back,” summed up Cronin.

Now, after more than a decade of being misdiagnosed, Bright has filed a claim against the federal government alleging medical malpractice, fraud and negligent concealment by the hospital staff. She says the needle in her spine has caused permanent nerve damage and she will likely have to live the rest of her life with it in place, causing her pain to worsen over time.

“If they were any kind of human whatsoever they would have said ‘Hey, I’m sorry, I made a huge mistake, let’s fix it,’” she said.

The federal government now has six months to respond to the claim and if a settlement is not reached, then a lawsuit will be filed.

Here’s hoping Bright, a mom of six, gets some relief, one way or another.

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