Woman sues hospital for botched abortion
A A 26-year-old woman in Jihlava is suing
the city hospital for delivering her a healthy child eight years ago, Mladá
fronta Dnes reports. “Kateřina,” who found herself pregnant at the age of 18,
got an abortion at the Jihlava hospital. However, the doctor, unaware that she
was pregnant with twins, accidentally left one child in her womb. She sued the hospital immediately
after the child was born.
B Her lawyer, Alena Ostřejšová, said the 300,000 Kč ($18,100) sum Kateřina
is asking for is to make up for lost income when she left her job to go on
maternity leave following the unwanted birth. After eight years, the court is
ready to pass a verdict. “This is an unprecedented
case in the Czech
Republic. The judge tried
to find a similar case in the European courts, but failed,” Ostřejšová said.
C Such things can happen, according to Aleš Roztočil, director of the gynaecological-maternity
section of the Jihlava hospital. “It is one of the complications of
terminations of pregnancy,” he said. According to the head of the Prague maternity hospital
in Podolí, Jaroslav Feyereisl, it is a complication that can happen to
inexperienced doctors.
D This is why Kateřina decided to sue the hospital, her lawyer said. “We
found out that there have been more such cases. They occur when the doctors don’t
do their jobs – I don’t want to say badly, because technically everything was
alright – but too routinely and they don’t bother
to check their work. We want hospitals to scratch their heads and be more
careful. The way they do their jobs affects people’s lives,” Ostřejšová said.
E According to experts, gynaecologists who perform abortions on women
with twins can double-check their work with an ultrasound test – which the
doctor did not do. At this point, Kateřina’s daughter still doesn’t know that
she wasn’t wanted, the lawyer said. “Kateřina has a second child; she’s
married. She’s a completely normal mother. She loves her daughter, and you can’t
relate that to her demand for money,” Ostřejšová said, adding that the lawsuit is intended as a warning to the
hospital. However, psychologist Vacláva Masaková says the child could suffer a
terrible shock if she found out about the lawsuit. “It could damage the
relationship with her mother and destroy trust. The child could become an
introvert,” she said.
double-check – opětovně
zkontrolovat
lawsuit – soudní proces
sue –zažalovat
to bother – obtěžovat
unprecedented case –
nebývalý případ
womb – děloha
1) Read the article and match each of the headings to a paragraph.
1 Doctors should be more
careful
2 Unprecedented case according
to Ostřejšová
3 Kateřina and her child
today
4 Introduction
5 Opinions of doctors from
Czech maternity hospitals
2) Read the article again and answer the questions.
1 What is the article about?
2 Who is Kateřina? What
happened to her?
3 What does her lawyer want?
4 What do the obstetricians
say?
5 What does psychologist
Vacláva Masaková think?
3) Explain the following words.
1 twins
2 maternity leave
3 unwanted birth
4 ultrasound test
5 introvert
4) Answer the following questions.
What is an abortion? What
is a miscarriage? What are reasons for an abortion? Should an abortion be legal
or illegal?
No comments:
Post a Comment