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The family of a Utah woman who died during bypass surgery is suing the hospital, alleging that doctors left an open tube from her heart — causing her to bleed out into a garbage can, according to a report.

Donnamay Brockbank underwent surgery in July 2018 at St. Mark’s Hospital in Milcreek to remove a medical device that had caused an allergic reaction, according to a complaint filed in Utah’s 3rd District Court, obtained by the Salt Lake Tribune.

The surgery required a cardiopulmonary bypass, which involved blood leaving Brockbank’s body through a large needle and tube through her neck, passing through a blood reservoir and returning through her femur, the outlet reported.

Once the surgery was over, Brockbank’s heart was beating independently and the surgical wound was closed, when the head surgeon walked out and a technician started breaking down the bypass machine, according to the lawsuit.

The tube and needle, or cannula, returning blood to her femur, was removed — but blood still drained from her body through the other cannula, which remained inside her, unclamped, the lawsuit revealed.

The technician allegedly proceeded to remove the blood reservoir from the bypass machine and put it in a medical waste trash can — but Brockbank’s heart continued to pump blood through it, according to the suit.

Brockbank’s pressure crashed — prompting surgeon Shreekanth V. Karwande to return to the room, according to the report.

Doctors performed various plasma transfusions on Brockbank that nearly doubled the amount of blood typically in a human body — but no one paid any attention to the blood that was still being pumped out into the garbage can, Rand Nolen, an attorney for the family, told the outlet.

“It boggles the mind, with how experienced this team was, that nobody would catch such a simple oversight,” Rhome D. Zabriskie, another attorney, told the outlet.

Though the transfusions stabilized Brockbank for a short time, they couldn’t counter the effect of the blood that continually poured out through the cannula, Nolen added.

So Karwande reopened his patient’s chest and tried to manipulate her heart, but Brockbank couldn’t be saved, the attorney said.

The news came as a shock for the family — who was initially informed that the procedure had gone well.

“An hour and a half later, he tells the family this is on him, and that she has died,” Nolen told the paper.

Then, two days later, hospital employees informed the family that they discovered the pool of blood in the pail, according to Nolen.

“We want to express our deepest condolences to Donnamay Brockbank’s family for their loss,” hospital CEO Mark Robinson told the paper in a statement. “Unfortunately, we are unable to comment on any pending litigation. That said, we continuously seek to learn from every patient situation to improve the quality and safety of the care we provide in our operating rooms and throughout the hospital.”

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