---
title: O.C.G.A. § 9-3-72. Foreign objects left in body.
collection: code
id: 9-3-72
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 9-3-72 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-3-72
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-3-72.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-3-72/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t9-ch1-10-(v6)-2023-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=f3cabc45_0#page=334
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-3.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-3-71.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-3-73.md
index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: CIVIL PRACTICE / LIMITATIONS OF ACTIONS / LIMITATIONS FOR MALPRACTICE ACTIONS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 9-3-72. Foreign objects left in body.

The limitations of Code Section 9-3-71 shall not apply where a foreign object has been left in a patient’s body, but in such a case an action shall be brought within one year after the negligent or wrongful act or omission is discovered. For the purposes of this Code section, the term “foreign object” shall not include a chemical compound, fixation device, or prosthetic aid or device.

## History

Code 1933, § 3-1103, enacted by Ga. L. 1976, p. 1363, § 1; Ga. L. 1985, p. 556, § 2.

## Cross References

Tolling of limitations for medical malpractice, § 9-3-97.1.

## Editor's Notes

Ga. L. 1985, p. 556, § 3, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: “No action for medical malpractice which, prior to July 1, 1985, has been barred by the provisions of Title 9, relating to actions, shall be revived by this Act. No action for medical malpractice which would be barred before July 1, 1986, by the provisions of this Act but which would not be so barred by the provisions of Title 9 in force immediately prior to July 1, 1985, shall be barred until July 1, 1986.”

## Law Reviews

For article surveying judicial and legislative developments in Georgia’s tort laws, see 31 Mercer L. Rev. 229 (1979).

For comment on statutes of limitations in medical malpractice actions in Georgia, see 33 Mercer L. Rev. 377 (1981).

For survey article on torts, see 34 Mercer L. Rev. 271 (1982).

For survey article on tort law, see 60 Mercer L. Rev. 375 (2008).

For annual survey on torts, see 65 Mercer L. Rev. 265 (2013).

For note, “Forty-Eight States are Probably Not Wrong: An Argument for Mod-ernizing Georgia’s Legal Malpractice Statute of Limitations,” see 33 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 805 (2017).