In Ashworth v. Memorial Hospital (1988) 206 Cal. App. 3d 1046, 254 Cal. Rptr. 104, the court explained how a foreign body that once served a therapeutic purpose can qualify for the "foreign body" exception: "Section 340.5 now requires that the 'foreign body' exception have no 'therapeutic purpose or effect.' However, this requirement can be satisfied even if the foreign body had such a purpose or effect when originally placed in the patient's body. It is enough the foreign body was not removed after it had ceased having this therapeutic purpose or effect. Otherwise the nine-inch drainage hose left in the patient in Huysman v. Kirsch (1936) 6 Cal.2d 302, 57 P.2d 908 and all the other sponges, pins, needles, and similar objects left in patients in the paradigm 'foreign body' cases would not qualify for the 'foreign body' exception. For, in nearly all these cases, the tube or sponge or other object indeed had a 'therapeutic purpose or effect' at the time it was inserted into the patient's body -- to drain the wound or absorb blood or hold a bone in place. But the continued presence of these items for weeks, months or years after the wound was closed had no therapeutic value. At some point these articles only represented a threat of injury. Sensibly, after enactment of section 340.5 the 'foreign body' rule still applies to 'foreign bodies' even though they had a 'therapeutic purpose or effect' at the time they were placed in the patient so long as it can be shown they were allowed to remain there too long." ( Ashworth, supra, 206 Cal. App. 3d at p. 1057.) Thus, once an intentionally inserted object no longer serves a therapeutic purpose, it becomes a "foreign body" with "no therapeutic ... purpose or effect." The screw in Osborne and the "cotton pledgets" or "sponges" in Ashworth clearly no longer served therapeutic purposes. In contrast, here Spivak's failure to remove the staple was negligent, if at all, not because the staple no longer served a therapeutic purpose, but because the staple was improperly placed, i.e., it pierced the nerve. This is exactly the opinion Dr. Hiler offered in his declaration opposing the motion -- that the staple was placed in the nerve during the hernia operation and that Spivak's failure to immediately perform exploratory surgery and remove the staple before it became embedded in scar tissue was below the standard of care. Dr. Hiler offered no opinion as to whether the staple continued to serve a therapeutic purpose. This simply is not a case where the doctor "left" a foreign object in the patient's body without any intended continuing treatment purpose, as in Ashworth and Osborne.