Hospital ‘sorry’ for accidental abortion
Woman had pregnancy terminated during a regular check-up after document blunder
A Prague hospital has offered apologies to a patient on whom it had performed an involuntary abortion after mixing her up with another patient last week.
One of the women was in for a regular check because she was pregnant, while the other arrived for a curettage, a tissue removal procedure which is also a method used to terminate a pregnancy.
Both were Asian with a permanent residency in the Czech Republic, local media have said. Hospital staff mixed them up and performed the surgery on the pregnant patient, who lost her fetus as a result.
“Unfortunately, it was a human error, a human failure,” Jan Kvacek, head of the Bulovka hospital in Prague, said.
Kvacek said the hospital was “deeply sorry” for what he called a “tragic” mix-up and said the institution also offered psychological and legal help to the patient.
“She is no doubt entitled to receive compensation,” he added, blaming a language barrier as playing a role in the incident.
Michal Zikan, head of the hospital’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said the patient had signed a document in Czech which, however, was meant for the other patient.
“Three days earlier, the patient was told in great detail, in the presence of an interpreter, what she would undergo, that it’s just a check,” Zikan said. He added the surgeons had “no reason to believe they were dealing with a different patient”.
The hospital has suspended one employee and ordered another one to work under expert supervision as a result.
The case resembles that of Thi-Nho Vo, a Frenchwoman of Vietnamese origin, who lost her baby in 1991 after a similar mix-up in Lyon. She tried to claim the hospital committed involuntary homicide but the European Court of Human Rights threw out her complaint, setting a precedent on the legal status of unborn babies.
Unfortunately, it was a human error. She is no doubt entitled to receive compensation
JAN KVACEK, HEAD OF BULOVKA HOSPITAL