UK medics in court after woman from Ireland dies following abortion
A DOCTOR and two nurses have appeared in court charged with the manslaughter of a pregnant woman who died from massive blood loss following a bungled abortion.
Aisha Chithira (32) had travelled from Dublin to a west London branch of the Marie Stopes clinic for the procedure in January 21, 2012, and collapsed hours later in a taxi in Slough, Berkshire.
She died later that day with the cause of death given as ‘extensive internal bleeding’ after the abortion.
Yesterday, Dr Adedayo Adedeji (63) appeared at Ealing Magistrates’ Court alongside nurses Gemma Pullen (32) and Margaret Miller (54).
All three face a charge of manslaughter by gross negligence. They also each face a charge of “failing as an employee while at work to take reasonable care for the health and safety of Aisha Chithira, who was affected by your actions or omissions at work”.
CPS prosecutor Colin Gibbs told magistrates it was a “very serious” offence.
“The defendant Adedeji is a doctor and the defendants Pullen and Miller are nurses.
“They were practising in a private clinic, the Marie Stopes Clinic, which is a chain of clinics that deal with terminations,” he said.
“The victim in this case was someone who lived in Ireland at the time. She took a decision to have a termination at 22 weeks.
“She came to the clinic in the Ealing area on the 21st of January 2012 and things were fairly normal until the procedure took place at 4.30pm that day.
“It became apparent she was quite unwell as a result of the procedure. She actually suffered an internal tear and that was causing internal bleeding.
“All her symptoms, which included falling to the floor, hyperventilating and many other things, were not properly dealt with.”
Mr Gibbs said Ms Chithira was discharged and took a taxi to a friend’s house in Slough, where an ambulance was called for her, before she was pronounced dead at 10pm that day.
Dr Adedeji and Ms Pullen, of Stoke-on-Trent, and Ms Miller, of Camberley, Surrey, were all bailed unconditionally to return to the Old Bailey for a preliminary hearing on July 3.