A hospital in Prague has been ordered to pay compensation to a woman who was four months pregnant and who accidentally had an abortion. She had come to the hospital for a routine check-up.
Her pregnancy had gone perfectly so far. Hardly any complaints. Yet she left the hospital without a baby in her womb.
The woman was a foreigner who did not speak Czech or English. According to the doctors, this led to the misunderstanding with a dramatic outcome.
The woman was four months pregnant and had to come to the Bulovka University Hospital in Prague for a routine check-up.
But instead of undergoing a regular examination, she was anesthetized and subjected to curettage – a surgical cleansing of the uterus – without her consent or knowledge.
The operation was in fact intended for another woman who was also of Asian descent, but the error went unnoticed by the doctors involved, a gynecologist, a nurse and an anesthetist.
The hospital will now have to pay compensation.