My god! Can you imagine the terror she must have felt for the following six months? That poor woman!
Woman who got wrong sperm wins suit – PittsburghLIVE.com
WILMINGTON, N.C. – A jury awarded $435,000 to a woman who was accidentally inseminated with unprepared sperm at a fertility clinic.
The award to Kelly Chambliss – $85,000 in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages – could later be reduced because of state limits on punitive damages.
“We’re pleased with the courage of the jury,” said Chambliss, 37. “We hope this never happens to anyone else again.”
In August 2002, Chambliss became violently ill just after a nurse practitioner inseminated her with the contents of an unlabeled syringe at the Coastal Area Health Education Center.
Two days later, Chambliss said clinic officials told her that she had been injected with “unwashed” sperm, which was left over from another client’s procedure two days before and had proteins that had caused her uterus to contract.
Chambliss was also told she could have been exposed to diseases such as AIDS or hepatitis and wouldn’t know for sure for about six months.
This reminds me of an ep of the series “Cops” that is rather a few years old. A patrol officer and a social worker were interviewing a person in thier home for reasons which I now do not remember, and very far on in the thing the person lets on, entirely off the cuff, that they had an active case of tuberculosis.
The camera was trained on the officer’s face, and how he toned down that gobstopped look that came over his face, well, I’d still like to know. It was almost as if the color drained out in one swoop.
The segment ended with the policeman stopping at a clinic to have tests done, going directly there in his cruiser. He mentioned he had a wife and 2 children and I couldn’t help but notice that he was summoning up his courage and that was showing as fairly good humor.
But, TB? That’s from the 1800’s, you’d think.
That story wasn’t followed up on, sadly.
Now, as far as mistakes in clinical settings go, I note that, after a spate of national-news-breaking O/R mistakes in hospitals, the Feds (I think) have just establshed a new set of rules for hospitals. Simply, just before the procedures begin, there is a momentary pause, and everyone acknowledges they understand what it is the are actually doing, from the physicians down to the anaesthesiologists.
So simple!
I don’t know if that would have helped this poor lady. On the other hand, if the technician had just picked up some unlabeled syringe, I suppose it could have potentially been anything. As appalling as the situation is, she perhaps got out of there lucky.