I've heard of people smuggling towels out of fancy hotels, but out of hospitals? This is ridiculous...
Here we see yet another example of surgical procedures gone bad. Not only did the surgeon leave a towel in the torso of this woman, he also blamed her condition, for the pain she was experiencing as a result. Good job, doc. The least you could have done is given her a towel with a nice imprint on it, say, a Disney character or something.
Of course, it's hard to blame only the surgeon in this case, since the woman had taken up the habit of smoking at the age of 15 and decided to smoke two packs of cigarettes a day until her lungs had been practically destroyed and she required surgery. If someone is going to effectively commit suicide by taking up a heavy smoking habit, it's sort of hard to blame surgeons for whatever happens to that person on the operating table.
My take on all of this? It's an example of an irresponsible patient meeting a careless surgeon. The result? Skyrocketing healthcare costs and medical malpractice lawsuits that help no one. The real blame here, I think, goes to Big Tobacco, which of course was manipulating nicotine levels in cigarettes in order to addict people for a lifetime.
Hey, maybe it was a Marlboro towel.