A hospital in Prague performed a curettage abortion procedure on the wrong woman due to what is being described as a tragic consequence of a language barrier.
It was reported that on the 25th of March an expectant mother attended Bulovka University Hospital for a routine scan, but a series of events meant the woman was mistaken for another patient, resulting in the death of her unborn child.
The woman was put under anaesthesia and a D&C curettage procedure intended for the other patient was preformed on her without her knowledge.
Local news reported that both patients were non-nationals living in the Czech Republic long-term, and that poor understanding of the local language as well as staff negligence had contributed to the incident.
It has also been reported that both women are of Asian decent.
Spokesperson for Bulkova University, Eva Stolejda Libigerová, told CNN Prima News that the “adverse event occurred at our Gynecology and Obstetrics Clinic.”
She said that according to investigation to date the incident took place “as a result of serious violations and non-compliance with internal regulations by the employees concerned, an operation was started on an incorrectly identified patient,”
It was reported that the staff involved in the incident have been suspended pending police investigation into the incident and that compensation has been offered to the mother whose baby was lost.
David Marx, chair of the Czech Society for Quality in Healthcare said that, “The goal must be to do a root analysis, identify the causes, and set a process so that this never happens again,”
Gynecologist and vice-chairman of the Czech Medical Chamber Jan Přáda said that the blame should not fall on the doctor who carried out the abortion saying, “The main problem is that she [the mother of the baby that was aborted in error ]even got to the operating table,”
He said that a Czech-speaking patient would probably “actively resist the fact that she is going to undergo a procedure with which she does not understand.”
The baby was 16-weeks gestation (four months) at the time of the incident with Přáda arguing that it may have been the case that the surgeon who performed the abortion procedure did not know the woman was pregnant as it is possible that no ultrasound was done.
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horrific . that poor woman , she must be going through hell.
I think its warped that in Ireland, Maternity hospitals which are supposed to be for giving birth are used for abortion also,
So on one side of the corridor you have new life being brought into the world while on the other side death and misery
True, a friend of mine is a midwife at the CUMH and it breaks her heart.
“…the surgeon that performed the abortion procedure did not know the woman was pregnant” What??? How would that even be possible?
It isn’t. Any procedure performed on a women of childbearing age should have a negative pregnancy test as minimum and dependent on actual procedure would need an ultrasound scan. Anything else is gross negligence by the surgical team. As for consent the anaesthetist is also grossly negligent if they have anaesthetised a patient who has not consented to the surgical procedure to be performed. This is normal practice throughout Europe and I assume elsewhere.
should have doesn’t mean it does,they take your word for it….like when you go get an x-ray…it’s not gross negligence because what you are saying isn’t a law at all…there are many a procedure safe for even pregnant women,some are essential,for sure c-sections are but the permission is usually to avoid law suits for the hospital and you can’t test every “childbearing” girl or woman without her permission either…so this is possible by sheer incompetence
Bit like saying that the general who detonated the nuclear bomb didn’t realise it was armed in the first place.
What a load of tosh justifying this terrible tragedy by explaining it as the surgeon not realising the woman was pregnant because an ultrasound was not carried out. Why would he have performed an abortion on a woman unless he was of the opinion she was with child? I doubt if a similar incident had happened in Ireland around the time of the Savita tragedy there would have been a pushback against the repeal of the eight amendment to prevent this?
What an evil man (Jan Přáda) blaming the first victim for the second victims murder.
What an absolutely horrific thing to happen. The world is beyond recovering from the madness and evilness which has taken hold.
“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”
did I have a language barrier reading this??why would a surgeon or any medical professional not know a woman is pregnant if they were doing a procedure for that thing?I am confused…why should she resist kicking and screaming for something she has no idea that is happening?right about one thing though,it is not just the Doctor who did this but every other medical staff leading up to it…that is horrendous…like I don’t buy the language barrier anyway because it’s not normal to performer any procedure without consent and how can you be sure if neither understand?it’s the Czech Republic where you can for sure have access to a translator at a moments notice…they fecked up doubly but it’s the mother who lost her child in this way is more in my thoughts…
In the Czech Republic there is a large Vietnamese community who tend to keep themselves to themselves. 1st generation immigrants – even after a decade or more – tend to have an extremely poor knowledge of the language apart from numbers and very basic vocabulary. So it actually IS highly likely that the lady did not understand the forms she was signing. That does not excuse the hospital in any way, though, as it should’ve been obvious that the woman didn’t know what she was signing. This is one of the few situations where everyone involved is at fault.
OMG, the poor baby and mother. That’s the stuff of horror movies.
The procedure the (correct) lady was supposed to go for was curettage surgery, defined as ‘surgery to remove tissue or growths from a bodily cavity (such as the uterus) by scraping with a curette’ This procedure can lead to the death of an unborn baby, but it is not an abortion procedure as such. We do not know the reason for the operation but it looks likely that it actually wasn’t for the express purpose of aborting a baby.
https://zpravy.aktualne.cz/domaci/zive-jak-se-to-mohlo-stat-nemocnice-bulovka-vysvetluje-tragi/r~bf362b48f25911eea26cac1f6b220ee8/