DOCTORS have performed an abortion on the wrong woman who was four months pregnant after mistaking her for another patient.
Medics have blamed the language barrier for the horror mix-up which left a foreigner with an unwanted termination of pregnancy.
ShutterstockThe hospital in Prague has apologised to the victim and her family[/caption]
GettyA pregnant woman miscarried after medics mistakenly performed an abortion on her[/caption]
The four-month-pregnant woman had walked into the Bulovka University Hospital in Prague, Czech Republic for a routine check-up on March 25.
But instead of a regular examination, the unnamed mum had undergone a curettage – a surgical cleaning of the uterus – without consent or knowledge.
The procedure is usually performed on women with gynaecological problems rather than pregnant patients, but sometimes can be used for abortion.
The op was intended for another woman who was also a foreigner but the error went undetected by doctors, a gynaecologist, a nurse and an anaesthesiologist involved.
An anonymous source told Prahain.CZ that both women were of Asian descent and did not speak Czech well.
They said: “It is a procedure that is ugly called a scraping. It is performed on women who bleed for a long time or have problems after childbirth and the like.
“For incomprehensible reasons, the two patients were swapped at the clinic and the poor woman’s child was scratched.”
As a result of the surgery, the woman miscarried.
The staff who carried out the procedure have been suspended and the investigation is underway.
Aside from negligence, the error could be attributed to the language barrier, a health expert revealed.
Jan Přáda, gynecologist and vice-chairman of the Czech Medical Chamber told Seznam Zpravy : “If she could not speak Czech or a known international language well, it could play a role.
“Translators are sometimes on the phone, which can also complicate communication.
“This is not to say that doctors should not deal with it, just that the risk of misunderstanding increases.
“A Czech-speaking patient would probably actively resist the fact that she is going to undergo a procedure that she does not understand.”
He added that the patients must have been asked to present ID and the mum should have never even made it to the operating table.
It is unclear in which language the doctors communicated with the foreign patient.
David Marx, chair of the Czech Society for Quality in Healthcare, said: “The goal must be to do a root analysis, identify the causes, and set a process so that this never happens again.”
The hospital has apologised to the affected patient and her family, and is prepared to offer financial compensation.
The Bulovka hospital spokeswoman Eva Stolejda Libigerova told CNN Prima News: “According to the findings so far, as a result of a serious violation of internal regulations on the part of the employees concerned, the surgical procedure was initiated on the incorrectly identified patient.
“If violations of mandatory working procedures are revealed as part of the ongoing internal investigation, specific individuals will be held personally responsible for it.”
The hospital has immediately notified the Health ministry of what they called “an undesirable event”.
Ministry spokesman Ondřej Jakob said: “The Ministry of Health expresses its deep regret to the patient and the entire family.
“There was an inexcusable human error, the guilty parties have been removed from duty for the time being.”
The clinic will continue informing the ministry of further steps regarding the responsible personnel and will address the mistake.
The police are treating the incident as a case of bodily harm.