In January 2026, one of the most significant retained surgical instrument verdicts in recent memory sent shockwaves through the medical malpractice community. A New Mexico jury awarded Michelle Torma $16.75 million against Presbyterian Healthcare Services after a 13-inch metal retractor was left inside her abdomen following surgery to remove a 75-pound benign tumor. The object remained undetected for 58 days — causing escalating pain, nausea, and severe anxiety — before a CT scan finally identified it. A second surgery was required for removal. The verdict, dominated by $15 million in punitive damages, illustrates exactly why retained foreign object cases are among the highest-liability surgical errors in 2026 and why hospitals that ignore basic safety protocols face devastating financial consequences.
What Happened: The Torma Case and Presbyterian Healthcare’s Failures
Michelle Torma underwent a complex surgical procedure to remove a 75-pound benign tumor — already an extraordinarily difficult operation. But what followed was an entirely preventable failure. A 13-inch metal retractor, a standard surgical tool used to hold tissue aside during procedures, was left inside her abdomen when the operating team closed. For 58 days, Torma suffered symptoms that no patient should have to endure after surgery: severe abdominal pain, persistent nausea, debilitating anxiety, and a steadily declining quality of life. Only after a CT scan was ordered did the source of her suffering become clear.
The plaintiffs’ legal team argued the case around a straightforward but damning principle: Presbyterian Healthcare Services failed to adhere to standard surgical counting protocols. Every accredited hospital requires surgical teams to count all instruments and sponges before, during, and after a procedure. This process exists precisely to prevent what happened to Michelle Torma. The defense attempted to frame the oversight as an understandable consequence of an unusually complex procedure. The jury rejected that argument decisively, allocating 99% of the punitive damages against Presbyterian Healthcare — a clear statement that institutional negligence, not procedural complexity, was the driving cause.
Breaking Down the $16.75 Million Verdict: Punitive vs. Compensatory Damages
Understanding how the jury arrived at $16.75 million requires separating the two categories of damages at play in this retained surgical instrument verdict.
Compensatory Damages: $1.75 Million
The $1.75 million compensatory award was designed to make Torma financially whole for her documented losses. These damages typically cover categories such as:
- Medical expenses — including the cost of the second surgery to remove the retractor, hospitalization, imaging, follow-up care, and any ongoing treatment for complications
- Lost wages and earning capacity — income lost during recovery and any long-term reduction in ability to work
- Pain and suffering — physical pain endured during the 58 days the instrument remained in place, surgical recovery, and chronic symptoms
- Emotional distress — the anxiety and psychological trauma of living with an unidentified foreign object and undergoing a second invasive procedure
- Lost quality of life — diminished ability to participate in daily activities, relationships, and personal enjoyment
Courts calculating lifetime damages in retained instrument cases must account for the compounding nature of secondary surgeries. Every additional operation creates new risks: infection, adhesions, organ damage, and anesthesia complications that can create cascading medical needs for years or decades. Attorneys and calculators must project these future costs using life expectancy tables and current medical cost inflation rates.
Punitive Damages: $15 Million
The $15 million punitive award — representing approximately 89% of the total verdict — is where this case becomes a landmark for 2026 medical malpractice law. Punitive damages are not intended to compensate the plaintiff. They exist to punish egregious conduct and deter future misconduct. For a hospital to face punitive damages of this scale, the jury must find behavior rising well above ordinary negligence — typically gross negligence, reckless disregard for patient safety, or willful failure to implement known safety standards.
The 99% allocation against Presbyterian Healthcare specifically signals that the jury viewed the institution’s systemic failure — not individual provider error — as the primary cause of harm. When hospitals fail to train staff, enforce counting protocols, or create cultures of accountability, punitive exposure grows dramatically. According to Nolo’s overview of punitive damages, courts in most states require that punitive awards bear a reasonable ratio to compensatory damages, though cases involving physical harm and institutional recklessness often support higher ratios.
Why Retained Surgical Instruments Are ‘Never Events’ — and What That Means for Liability
The medical and legal communities classify retained surgical instruments as “never events” — errors so serious, so preventable, and so clearly indicative of systemic failure that they should, by definition, never occur in an accredited facility. The term carries enormous legal weight in 2026 malpractice litigation because it creates a near-automatic presumption of negligence.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, healthcare-associated complications stemming from surgical errors remain a leading category of preventable patient harm in U.S. hospitals. The scale of the retained instrument problem is staggering: the American Society of Anesthesiologists estimates that between 4,500 and 6,000 sponges and surgical instruments are left inside U.S. patients every year. Each one of those cases represents a failure of protocol — not a failure of surgical complexity.
From a legal standpoint, never event classification matters because it eliminates the hospital’s most common defense: that medicine is inherently uncertain and outcomes are unpredictable. When a written protocol exists specifically to prevent a harm — and that harm occurs anyway — the inference of negligence is powerful. Plaintiffs’ attorneys in retained surgical instrument verdict cases routinely use this framing to shift the burden of explanation onto the defense.
Retained Surgical Instrument Verdicts: What the Numbers Look Like in 2026
The Torma verdict fits within a broader pattern of high-value retained foreign object settlements and awards. The following table summarizes key statistics relevant to understanding the financial landscape of these cases in 2026:
| Metric | Data | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Annual retained instruments/sponges in U.S. patients | 4,500–6,000 cases per year | American Society of Anesthesiologists |
| Typical verdict/settlement range (secondary surgery or organ damage) | $1 million–$5 million+ | Industry data, 2026 |
| Torma compensatory damages awarded | $1.75 million | New Mexico jury verdict, January 2026 |
| Torma punitive damages awarded | $15 million (99% vs. Presbyterian Healthcare) | New Mexico jury verdict, January 2026 |
| Total Torma verdict | $16.75 million | New Mexico jury verdict, January 2026 |
| Duration retractor remained in patient | 58 days | Case record |
| Size of retained instrument | 13 inches (metal retractor) | Case record |
As the data shows, the Torma verdict sits at the far upper end of the spectrum — a reflection of both the severity of Presbyterian Healthcare’s failure and the jury’s determination to send an institutional message. Victims who suffer secondary surgeries, chronic pain, or organ damage can generally expect their claims to fall well above the $1 million floor, particularly when punitive conduct is present.
How Courts Calculate Damages in Retained Instrument Cases
Calculating damages in a retained surgical instrument verdict involves projecting both economic and non-economic losses across the plaintiff’s remaining life expectancy. Courts and attorneys use several established methodologies.
Economic Damages: The Measurable Losses
Economic damages are calculated using documented costs and professional projections. Medical economists and life care planners prepare detailed reports estimating future surgical needs, physical therapy, pain management, psychiatric care, and medication costs. Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute explains that economic damages in personal injury cases are designed to restore plaintiffs to the financial position they would have occupied absent the defendant’s negligence. In retained instrument cases, this includes all costs flowing from the secondary surgery — not just the immediate hospitalization, but years of follow-up care for adhesions, chronic pain, and psychological treatment.
Non-Economic Damages: Pain, Suffering, and Lost Quality of Life
Non-economic damages are inherently more subjective but no less significant. Attorneys typically use one of two methods: the per diem approach (assigning a daily dollar value to pain and multiplying by the number of affected days) or the multiplier method (multiplying total economic damages by a factor of 1.5 to 5 depending on severity). For a patient like Michelle Torma — who endured 58 days of unexplained pain, required a second major surgery, and faces a lifetime of potential complications — both methods support substantial awards.
If you have been injured in a situation involving serious medical negligence or another harmful incident and want to understand what your claim might be worth, tools like a wrongful death calculator can help families understand the economic framework courts use when fatalities result from institutional negligence.
What This Verdict Means for Medical Malpractice Claims in 2026
The Torma retained surgical instrument verdict is not an outlier — it is a signal. As 2026 progresses, hospitals face growing legal exposure for never events precisely because juries understand that these errors are protocol failures, not medical mysteries. The surgical counting process has existed for decades. Technology-assisted counting systems using barcodes and RFID tags are widely available. When a hospital fails to implement or enforce any of these measures — and a 13-inch retractor stays in a patient’s body for nearly two months — the argument that complexity excuses the failure simply does not hold.
For patients and families navigating the aftermath of surgical errors, this verdict reinforces several important points about litigation strategy. First, documenting every symptom from the moment something feels wrong is critical — Torma’s 58-day timeline of documented suffering directly supported her damages. Second, medical records showing a hospital’s counting procedures (or lack thereof) are often the most powerful evidence available. Third, Justia’s medical malpractice resources provide a useful framework for understanding how state-specific rules govern filing deadlines and damage caps — both of which vary significantly and can affect the total recovery available to injured patients.
Injury victims in other contexts face similarly complex calculations. For example, someone injured in a premises liability incident may benefit from using a slip and fall calculator to understand how courts evaluate liability and damages in negligence cases outside the operating room — where the same core principles of duty, breach, causation, and harm apply.
Frequently Asked Questions About Retained Surgical Instrument Cases
What is a retained surgical instrument verdict, and how is negligence proven?
A retained surgical instrument verdict is a jury or court decision finding a hospital or surgical team liable for leaving a surgical tool — such as a sponge, retractor, clamp, or needle — inside a patient’s body after a procedure. Because hospitals have written counting protocols specifically designed to prevent this, negligence is generally presumed when an instrument is confirmed to have been left behind. Plaintiffs typically introduce the medical records confirming the retained object, evidence of the hospital’s counting procedures, and expert testimony establishing the standard of care. The never event classification means the burden effectively shifts to the hospital to explain why its protocols failed.
Why were punitive damages so much higher than compensatory damages in the Torma case?
The $15 million punitive award versus the $1.75 million compensatory award reflects the jury’s finding that Presbyterian Healthcare’s conduct went far beyond ordinary negligence. Punitive damages are awarded to punish institutional recklessness and deter future misconduct — not to compensate the victim. When a hospital ignores established safety training, fails to enforce surgical counting protocols, and those failures cause a 13-inch metal retractor to remain in a patient for 58 days, juries treat the institution’s behavior as willful disregard for patient safety. The 99% allocation specifically against Presbyterian (rather than individual providers) signals that the jury identified a systemic institutional failure.
How long do patients have to file a retained surgical instrument malpractice claim?
Filing deadlines — called statutes of limitations — vary by state and typically range from one to three years for medical malpractice claims. However, most states apply a discovery rule in retained instrument cases: the clock does not begin running until the patient knew or reasonably should have known the instrument was left behind. In Torma’s case, the 58-day gap between surgery and CT scan discovery would likely trigger the discovery rule in most jurisdictions, giving her the full limitations period from the date of CT confirmation. Patients should consult with a qualified attorney as soon as they suspect a retained instrument because even discovery-rule deadlines have outer limits.
What types of compensation are available in a retained surgical instrument case?
Victims of retained surgical instruments may recover both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages include all medical costs related to the discovery and removal of the instrument (including second surgery expenses), lost wages during recovery, reduced future earning capacity, future medical care costs, and any costs related to ongoing complications like chronic pain management or psychological treatment. Non-economic damages cover physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium for affected spouses or family members. In cases involving gross negligence or institutional recklessness, punitive damages may also be available, as demonstrated by the Torma verdict.
How common are retained surgical instrument cases, and what is the average settlement value?
Retained surgical instrument cases are far more common than most patients realize. The American Society of Anesthesiologists estimates between 4,500 and 6,000 sponges and instruments are left inside U.S. patients every year — making this one of the most frequent categories of never events. Settlement and verdict values vary widely depending on the type of instrument retained, the duration it remained undetected, whether secondary surgery was required, and the degree of long-term harm. Cases involving secondary surgeries or organ damage routinely settle or result in verdicts exceeding $1 million, with complex cases involving institutional negligence — like Torma’s — reaching $5 million to $16.75 million or more when punitive damages are involved.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice; consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for guidance specific to your situation.
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James Mitchell is a personal injury legal researcher with over a decade of experience analyzing settlement data and compensation trends across the United States. He has studied thousands of personal injury cases to help injury victims understand their legal rights and the potential value of their claims. James is not an attorney and the information he provides is for
educational purposes only.