A Scarsdale mother who works as a nurse for the same hospital network is suing after surgeons allegedly left a needle inside her abdomen for seven years.
Jana Petriganova DeGregoris, a cardiothoracic nurse practitioner at Mount Sinai since 2013, and her husband Gerard DeGregoris filed suit Sept. 24 in Manhattan Supreme Court against the hospital and three physicians. The couple allege that doctors Isabel Blumberg, Philip Torina and Scott Nguyen negligently left behind a roughly 1.5-inch surgical needle during one of two procedures performed between 2018 and 2021.
The first surgery took place on June 28, 2018, when Blumberg and Torina performed a C-section with plastic surgery wound closure, according to court documents. More than three years later, on Nov. 17, 2021, Nguyen and Torina conducted an abdominoplasty with laparoscopic umbilical hernia repair on Petriganova DeGregoris.
The lawsuit claims the surgical tool was “negligently, carelessly and improperly” left behind during one of these operations. For years afterward, Petriganova DeGregoris endured what the filing describes as unexplained suffering without knowing its source.
“[She] sustain[ed] severe and serious personal injuries and severe physical pain when a foreign object was left in her abdomen,” the court filing states.
The mystery finally ended on Oct. 14, when a CT scan revealed the foreign object lodged inside her, the lawsuit alleges. She then underwent additional surgery to remove the 3.8 cm needle.
Petriganova DeGregoris and her husband are seeking unspecified damages for the alleged medical error. The lawsuit targets both the individual surgeons and the Manhattan hospital where she has built her own nursing career.
The couple’s attorney, John Cagney, declined to comment on the case. Blumberg, Torina, Nguyen and Mount Sinai did not respond to requests for comment.
The case highlights a rare but persistent category of surgical error known as retained foreign objects, which can cause chronic pain, infection and internal damage for years before detection. While hospitals typically count instruments before and after procedures, needles and other small items occasionally escape notice, particularly in complex or emergency surgeries involving multiple teams.
Petriganova DeGregoris’s position as an employee of the same hospital network she is suing adds an unusual layer to the dispute. Her LinkedIn profile confirms her long tenure as a cardiothoracic nurse practitioner at Mount Sinai, a role she held throughout the period of her alleged injuries and their eventual discovery.
The lawsuit does not specify which of the two surgeries resulted in the retained needle, leaving open whether the error occurred during the 2018 C-section or the 2021 tummy tuck and hernia repair.