State of California Sues Hospital for Denying Abortion, Allegedly Offering 'Bucket and Towels'
10/02/2024 02:48 PM
A pregnant woman hemorrhaged at 15 weeks and was denied emergency care. Now the state of California is suing Providence St. Joseph Hospital on her behalf
- The State of California has filed a lawsuit against a hospital that allegedly denied a patient an emergency abortion when she went into labor at 15 weeks because fetal heartbeats were detected
- The suit claims that instead of providing Anna Nusslock with emergency care, Providence St. Joseph Hospital "offered her a bucket and towels"
- In a statement posted on Facebook, the hospital called Nusslock's treatment "a tragic situation"
The State of California is suing a hospital after it allegedly denied a woman an emergency abortion.
The Catholic-affiliated hospital Providence St. Joseph Hospital allegedly denied Anna Nusslock, 36, an emergency abortion after her water prematurely broke, leaving her susceptible to infection and other complications, according to a report in the New York Times.
Nusslock, a chiropractor from Eureka, Calif., was 15 months pregnant with twins when her water broke, the outlet reports. Doctors told her the babies were not viable and if the pregnancies were not terminated, she could hemorrhage, develop an infection — and negatively affect her future fertility.
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Providence St. Joseph Hospital in CaliforniaHowever, the outlet reports, because fetal heartbeats were detected, the hospital would not perform an abortion unless Nusslock's life was at risk, citing the hospital's own policy.
Yet according to the Cleveland Clinic, fetal tissue remaining in the uterus can cause "infection, which can damage your reproductive organs or even cause dangerous complications like sepsis when left untreated,"
The NYT reports that Nusslock's husband drove her to Mad River Community Hospital — and by the time she arrived, she was hemorrhaging. Nusslock expelled one fetus, and was given an emergency procedure to remove the other.
On Sept. 30, the state of California filed a lawsuit against the hospital, alleging that it violated California law that mandates hospitals with emergency rooms provide care to prevent not only death, but "serious injury or illness."
The suit alleges that "instead of providing the emergency medical care she needed, Providence Hospital offered her a bucket and towels."
Further details of Nusslock's experience are alleged in the lawsuit, including that the doctor at Providence advised she be helicoptered to University of California, San Francisco Medical Center for treatment. When Nusslock brought up the $40,000 cost, the suit says her doctor told her, "If you try to drive, you will hemorrhage and die before you get to a place that can help you."
The suit alleges that Providence Hospital's "conduct was not only dangerous and inhumane, but also illegal in multiple ways," citing Calfornia's Emergency Services Law, which the suit says "specifically prohibits the kind of patient dumping Anna experienced."
"This experience deeply traumatized me, and I have been dealing with tremendous anxiety, grief, and depression ever since," Nusslock said, according to the New York Times.
The hospital responded with a statement issued in a Facebook post, writing, "As you have likely heard, yesterday we learned that the California attorney general filed a lawsuit alleging that we denied emergency care to a pregnant patient in Humboldt County earlier this year."
"We are heartbroken over the experience this patient had while in our care and reached out to her today in an effort to express our profound apologies."
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"This was a tragic situation that did not meet our high standards for safe, quality, compassionate care. We are immediately re-visiting our training, education and escalation processes in emergency medical situations to ensure that this does not happen again and to ensure that our care teams have the training and support they need to deliver the best possible care for each patient we serve."
"As devastated as we are, we can't begin to imagine what the patient and her family have been through. We will learn from this and renew our commitment to ensuring that the care and experience we deliver are aligned with our high standards, every time and in every care setting."
Mad River, the hospital that ultimately treated Nusslock, is closing its labor and delivery unit soon, the New York Times reports, which means that treatment options in the area will be further limited.
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