Great Moments in Government-Run Healthcare

British healthcare is often criticized for long waiting lines and slovenly conditions, but that's just part of the story. Here's a frightening story about a women who actually got treated - and died as a result. To be fair, this presumably is a tragic exception and most people in the United Kingdom surely receive adequate care. That being said, how can medical professionals miss a six-inch handle stuck in someone's butt?!? Here's an excerpt from the Sun newspaper:

A young mum died after a series of blunders by doctors who failed to spot a six-inch long toilet brush handle embedded in her buttock, an inquest was told today. Cindy Corton, 35, was left with the bizarre injury after a drunken fall in a friend's bathroom in 2005 but "serious errors" by doctors then led to her death. It was two years before Cindy, who was in constant pain, was able to convince doctors that the thin serrated plastic handle was stuck in the flesh of her bottom. By then what should have been a routine procedure to remove it had become much more dangerous because the handle had become embedded in her pelvis. After two unsuccessful operations in 2007 the mother-of-one was in such agony that she agreed to undergo further surgery in June last year despite being told it could prove fatal. Cindy of Sleaford, Lincs, spent more than ten hours in surgery at Nottingham's Queens Medical Centre but died from massive blood loss. ...Cindy's husband, a construction manager, is now taking legal action against United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust. ...He added: "Cindy got a very poor service from the NHS. I'm sure she would have got better treatment in foreign countries."