Eighteen years ago, Ma Van Nhat was saved when he underwent emergency surgery after a car accident. In the years since, the now 54-year-old gentleman continued on with his life as normal unaware that his doctors had made a grievous and neglectful mistake.

When he went in to the doctor with reported stomach pains, the hospital found a pair of surgical forceps in the Vietnamese man’s abdomen. He never knew that doctors left the behind. But the ultrasound images do not lie – and now his story has spread across the internet…

Learn more about Ma Van Nhat’s incident and what is being done to protect the man from the rusty forceps left in his abdomen…

Although the surgeons had accidentally left the forceps in his abdomen 18-years ago, they sewed him up and sent him home without knowing. Now he has pains and needs them removed.

Thankfully, this past weekend, Ma Van Nhat had them removed and can go back to normal life – as long as the doctors didn’t make a similar mistake this time…

After reporting the pain, an ultrasound image revealed the 15 cm or six inch pair of forceps left in his body…near his colon.

During the weekend, Ma Van Nhat had a three-hour operation to remove the surgical implements.

According to Ngo Trung Thang, deputy head of general affairs at Gang Thep Thai Nguyen hospital, which is 50 miles north of Hanoi, “he is recover well” from the surgery.

Because the initial surgery happened almost two decades ago, Ma Van Nhat went almost half of his life unaware that a pair of forceps were in his body.

According to the Suc Khoe va Doi Song news site, which is the official mouthpiece of Vietnam’s health ministry, Nhat was “eating, drinking and having a pretty normal life” despite the object near his colon.

Eventually his stomach pains became more than he could bear. He reported it to the hospital and had the ultrasound conducted – they found the forceps immediately.

Because this is a grievous error of neglect, health officials are searching for the doctor who performed the surgery back in 1998. But they have yet to identify the criminal.

Viewers around the world are shocked that doctors had failed to notice their error.

Here is what some readers are saying about the gross neglect on MailOnline:

“Begs the question of how items this size not get noticed when surgeons stitch up patients?”

“Apart from an obvious ‘Counting’ procedure of All Instruments present, Pre & Post Surgery in the OP; Surely Each & Every Patient should be Scanned for Any Metallic elements that Could left behind after surgery as a Norm…”

“Then they charged him a $24k rental fee for having kept the scissors so long,” one reader joked.

“I thought all Surgical Instruments were supposed to be stainless steel! But I suppose it depends in what country you happen to be!”

“They would not rust as made of top grade stainless steel!!!”