If you have the time, you should read this. This situation was absolutely
wild, even from a medical perspective. It's really a miracle this woman and her kid survived.
Link /
https://archive.is/RCNKj
One day late last summer, Dr. Barry Grimm called a fellow obstetrician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to consult about a patient who was 10 weeks pregnant. Her embryo had become implanted in scar tissue from a recent cesarean section, and she was in serious danger. At any moment, the pregnancy could rupture, blowing open her uterus.
Dr. Mack Goldberg, who was trained in abortion care for life-threatening pregnancy complications, pulled up the patient’s charts. He did not like the look of them. The muscle separating her pregnancy from her bladder was as thin as tissue paper; her placenta threatened to eventually invade her organs like a tumor. Even with the best medical care in the world, some patients bleed out in less than 10 minutes on the operating table. Goldberg had seen it happen.
Then, in July, Hollis was shocked to learn she was pregnant again; she’d just begun taking birth control pills, but it might have been too recent for them to be effective. Her first call was to Grimm, who worried that a pregnancy this soon, on top of four previous C-sections, put her at risk of developing a cesarean scar ectopic pregnancy. By Hollis’ eight-week ultrasound in early August, Grimm’s worst fears were confirmed.
Her life was at risk, he told her. Her pregnancy could rupture and cause a hemorrhage in the first trimester. It was almost certain to eventually develop into a life-threatening placenta disorder. There was little data to predict whether the baby would make it. If it survived, it was sure to be born extremely early, spend months in critical care and face developmental challenges.
I think this was the worst part:
ProPublica spoke with 20 Tennessee medical providers about life under the ban, on condition of anonymity because they feared professional and personal repercussions; some said that they had witnessed a new trepidation in their ranks. “I’ve seen colleagues delay or sit on assessing the clinical data longer when they know the diagnosis is probably ectopic,” one said, referring to pregnancies that implant outside the uterine cavity, which are always life-threatening. “People were like, 'I don’t want to be involved because I don’t want to go to prison,'” said another. “It’s crazy — even assessing the patient or having a role in their care makes people scared.”
In sum: the woman was an ex druggie, had her kids taken away by the state, and is pretty much in financial ruin to regain custody of her youngest daughter and underwent an emergency C-section for that scar ectopic pregnancy. Vanderbilt, a private hospital, almost didn't want to do it.
Her kid was born premature, and had to return to NICU several times. It lived, but we won't know as of yet if it's a tard baby, as most preemies that young (think it was around 24 or so weeks when the woman went into labor) either die or develop life long conditions.
There has been some debate over the law, but a
specific organization said no. Good luck if you have severe medical conditions in that state. (Also, the fact they admitted to being bribed about it is both sad and hilarious, in a Clown World sort of way.)
In Idaho, it
caused a rural hospital to stop providing obstetric care.
Arizona has its own issues regarding termination of fetal anomalies.
Slight PL: had I been a third child (I'm a second born) I would have been an ectopic pregnancy. Ovarian cysts run on the female line, too, both paternal and maternal. If I had those conditions I'd be SOL. And, it seems, so are these women.
