The staff responsible for the mix-up have been suspended
A shocking mistake at a Prague hospital resulted in a foreign woman undergoing an abortion she never wanted. CNN Prima News reported that the four-month-pregnant woman arrived for a routine checkup on March 25th at Bulovka University Hospital.
Incredibly, a series of errors allowed her to be anesthetized and operated on, despite being the wrong patient. Hospital staff, including nurses, doctors, a gynaecologist, and even the anesthesiologist, failed to identify her correctly. The hospital blames a language barrier for the nightmarish mix-up.
The healthy pregnant woman was then subjected to a curettage, a type of uterus surgery and method of abortion, that was scheduled for the other patient. Following the procedure, the woman miscarried.
The media outlet reported that aside from gross staff negligence, a language barrier led to the traffic incident.
Speaking to Czech media outlet Seznam Zpravy, gynaecologist and vice-chairman of the Czech Medical Chamber Jan Prada said: ‘A Czech-speaking patient would probably actively resist the fact that she is going to undergo a procedure that she does not understand’.
“The goal must be to do a root analysis, identify the causes, and set a process so that this never happens again,” David Marx, chair of the Czech Society for Quality in Healthcare, told the news outlet.
“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,’ Bulovka spokeswoman Eva Stolejda Libigerova told CNN Prima News.
The staff responsible for the mix-up have been suspended and the hospital is investigating the incident.
‘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 spokeswoman added.