Injury to colon during appendectomy

Dear Ask The Doctor: Hello, My wife and I are tourists from Poland visiting LA, my wife felt bad on Monday evening and after feeling serious pain for a few hours, we rushed to the hospital where after 2-3 hours of testing and CAT scan they determine that she have to go appendectomy. After the surgery was complete the surgeon called me and said that while they ware operating they cut (punctured) the Colon and some faeces "spilled" into the abdomen. Now, almost 4 days after the surgery she has some infections, and feever, and today they decided to put a "drain" in the side of her body to release fluids.. My question is" How dangerous and how common is this mistake that they did ? and also will it have future risks or effects ? Thank You.

Dear Liraz: Injury to the colon during appendectomy is recognized complication of the procedure, although not a very common one. The most dangerous consequence of such a complication is the development of a severe intra-abdominal infection leading to a generalized infection of the body (sepsis). This scenario is very unlikely to happen since steps have been taken to drain the infected fluid from her abdomen and I am certain she is receiving a course of intravenous antibiotics. Potential long term side effects include obstruction of the small intestines from scar tissue formed in the recovery process. Occasionally, surgery may be required to repair this problem. This particular complication may take many years to develop if it develops at all.