Abortion leads to hysterectomy; woman sues PP

Woman alleges medical malpractice after abortion

A 40-year-old Nebraska woman said in a lawsuit filed Friday that she had an emergency hysterectomy because of a botched abortion at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Lincoln last month.

The woman, who is not named in the lawsuit, said she lost four liters of blood — the equivalent of 80 percent of the average woman’s blood volume, according to the lawsuit — and that the procedure caused her excruciating pain.

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[Abortionist Meryl Severson] resigned from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in March 2001 after performing an elective abortion in 2000 in violation of university policy. He joined Planned Parenthood in May 2001.

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According to the lawsuit, the woman was about eight weeks pregnant when she contacted Planned Parenthood in July and scheduled an abortion at the South Street Center. .... [A]ccording to the suit, the woman had an ultrasound, which indicated a tilted uterus. [She] was taken to an examination room and given an injection in her cervix, the lawsuit said. She then heard a suction sound, felt pressure in the uterus and “immediately complained of excruciating pain.”

When she told Severson and the attendants to stop, the suit said, the doctor replied, “We can’t stop.” Three employees then held the woman down while Severson completed the suction, according to the lawsuit.

Afterward, the woman felt sharp pain, nausea and was bleeding, the lawsuit said. While in the recovery area, her friend tried to help her to a bathroom, but she passed out, fell to the floor and suffered the first of three seizures, the lawsuit said.

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A signed operative report from a physician at the hospital said the woman had experienced a “catastrophic perforation” of the uterus during the abortion. ....Because of the “extensive nature of the trauma,” the report said, the physician summoned a second doctor and they performed an emergency hysterectomy on the woman. The doctors took photographs of the uterus to show the damage, according to the lawsuit.