Twin survives abortion

2005-04-25 07:56

London - A 20-year-old Scottish woman is suing a hospital where she had an abortion in 2001 after one of her twins survived the operation.

Stacy Dow, who is raising her now three-year-old daughter Jayde with her parents, said late on Sunday she is seeking £250 000 (nearly R3m) to cover the costs of raising the child.

"I have got a child now that I wasn't planning to have and I believe the hospital should take some responsibility for that," she said.

She said the hospital in Perth, Scotland where she had her operation had failed "to take reasonable care to establish that the termination had been successful".

Dow was 16 when she learned in early 2001 that she was pregnant and immediately decided to have an abortion.

Although the operation was declared a success, she realised several weeks later after visiting a doctor that she was still pregnant with one of her twins.

She then gave birth in August of that year.

In a similar case in 2001, a 36-year-old mother from Stafford in central England received £10 000 compensation under an amicable agreement with a surgeon who had failed to end her pregnancy.

In that case too one of a pair of twins survived the operation.

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- AFP