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Irish woman left fighting for life after botched UK abortion left parts of fetus inside her

Doctor struck off five years after patient had uterus perforated

CATHAL DERVAN,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Sunday, December 4, 2011, 8:22 AM

Updated Sunday, December 4, 2011, 8:22 AM

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An Irishwoman was "left fighting for her life" after a botched UK abortion.

Details have emerged of a 2006 abortion case in England in which an Irishwoman was "left fighting for her life" after a botched operation by a Ghanaian doctor who has just been struck-off in the UK.

Dr Phanuel Dartey has been officially disqualified from practice by Britain’s General Medical council over his treatment of five patients at the Marie Stopes International Clinic in the London borough of Ealing.

One of the five cases involved an unidentified Irishwoman whose uterus was perforated. The patient was also left with parts of her fetus inside her during the 2006 procedure.

The woman had to be rushed to hospital on her return to Ireland and was in a critical condition for two months before eventually recovering.

An Irish representative of the Marie Stopes organisation told the Belfast Telegraph that the case was an "isolated one."

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Gabrielle Malone, the manager of Marie Stopes Reproductive Choices in Dublin, also confirmed to the paper that the Ealing clinic is still one of the recommended facilities on a list given to women seeking pregnancy counseling.

She also said that the Marie Stopes clinics had an excellent record and the Dartey case was an isolated one.

The report says that 498 Irishwomen have had abortions at the Ealing center. The number of Irishwomen having abortions in the UK has fallen for nine years but 4,402 had terminations in 2010.

Irishwomen has 31 abortions in Holland last year, down from 134 in 2009.

The paper states that: “Women with crisis pregnancies who receive free non-directive pregnancy counseling are given a list of approved abortion clinics in the UK.”

A spokeswoman for Marie Stopes also told the Belfast Telegraph that there is a comprehensive list of requirements doctors must fulfil before being employed by the clinics.

“We have a rigorous governance and assurance framework in place," she added.

Dr Dartey, who qualified as a doctor in the Soviet Union, gained notoriety two years ago when he claimed he was able to enlarge the female G-Spot with his G-Shot jabs.

He also used innovative laser surgery at his private Harley Street clinic to perform operations designed to enhance women’s sex lives but botched surgery on several patients.

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eiriamach | Dec 17, 2011, 09:35 AM EST

Is that comment "garrulous" enough for georgedillon? And I should have agreed with danoloingsigh rather than just pointing out that the anti-abortion posters all seem to be male. Women are often silent on this issue because we know how complex it is and we choose not to try to 'debate' it with simple-minded ideologues and religious zealots.

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eiriamach | Dec 17, 2011, 09:27 AM EST

vincentruane thinks "The words fetus and embryo are convenient words of dehumanization, which helps to disguise the fact that a weak and defenseless growing human being will be killed." A shred of embryonic tissue is accurately described as just that, and Nature herself sends thousands of such shreds down toilet bowls every day in a process called spontaneous abortion. It happens, unreliably, to defective embryos that, if nature left in the womb, would resemble monsters more than humans or would be so handicapped by congenital anomalies that they would not survive infancy. If, in your fantasy life, you imagine an early-stage fetus as a fully formed human being, rather than a creature that resembles a fish with gills more than a human baby, you are heavily under the influence of conservative social ideology and, probably, religious doctrines about ensoulment. Abortion is an immensely complex biological and moral issue best left to the pregnant woman to decide-- whether you agree with her or not. Do you wish to make abortion less frequent? Then work on eliminating poverty and discrimination, on holding men accountable financially for the children they abandon, on making contraceptives readily available to women who need them, on providing accessible pre-natal care, and on opening real economic opportunities to parents of young children. If you are doing none of that work, why should anyone listen to your opinion? Is ANY of the posters below female? I doubt it! The most effective way of decreasing the number of truly 'elective' abortions-- by millions each year-- is to make contraceptives available to those who need them. truane writes, "I have never yet met a woman who regretted given birth to their own son or daughter." Get thee to the homeless shelters, the ghettos, the hospital emergency rooms, the visitors' rooms at the prisons, and you'll find plenty of women who regret giving birth to children who never really had a chance in life.

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DanOLoingsigh | Dec 06, 2011, 08:20 AM EST

Vincentruane - There will always be some women (and underage girls) who feel they cannot bring a pregnancy to term, for a variety of complex and personal reasons. Most European governments recognise this, and prefer giving access to safe and regulated abortion procedures (as against unregulated ‘back street’ abortions). This is seen as necessary to promote the welfare of their female citizens. This right has been denied to Irish women to date by a toxic combination of church influence, and religious zealotry. You are of course entitled to your view on this, but you are not entitled impose your views on those who do not share your beliefs or values. If your wife or daughter needed to secure an abortion for very good medical or other reasons, would you try to stop them?

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vincentruane | Dec 05, 2011, 08:56 PM EST

The most truthful way to describe a child in the womb, is 'A weak and defenseless growing human being.' The words fetus and embryo are convenient words of dehumanizationn, which helps to disguise the fact that a weak and defenseless growing human being will be killed. There is also another fact many people in the killing of unborn children ignore, but the Irish Government cannot afford to ignore and it is this. Every nation that legalized abortion, saw a massive increase in the killing of human beings growing in their Mother's womb. For instance in America since Roe v Wade case in 1973,(which was won by telling lies) over 83 million Americans have been killed in the American branch of the abortion holocaust. In the previous 40 years, maybe 100-000 Americans had been killed through abortion. Legalizing abortion leads to more deaths of unborn children and indeed more injuries and heartbreak for many women. I have never yet met a woman who regretted given birth to their own son or daughter. Furthermore it would be a grave error for the Irish Government, to legalize abortion,as some people are suggesting,because it could lead to more innocent Irish people been killed, than all of Ireland's tragic famines combined. Also the duty of an Irish political leader or indeed an European leader is to give equal human rights to all human beings. And since it is a well proven and undeniable scientific fact that human life begins at conception, the child growing in the womb has every much a right to his or her human life as any other Irish or European person.

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GeorgeDillon | Dec 05, 2011, 12:23 PM EST

This is a sad case. How come the garrulous poster calling herself eiriamach is so silent now? What do you think, eiriamach, one dead one injured following this abortion, happy with that? Readers should remember that in the past racists such as Marie Stopes and others promoted abortion, just as today's racists promote Mass Immigration.

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DanOLoingsigh | Dec 05, 2011, 11:13 AM EST

IrelandNorth – Either you accept that a woman has the right to make this choice, or you don’t. As an embryo has no way of telling anyone of its choice, some people want to speak on its behalf…speaking out on behalf of those that have no voice is most laudable. But that’s quite different to imposing one persons will on another. There is a history in Ireland of some very hard cases following the constitutional referendum; the ‘X Case’, where a child aged 14 was banned from leaving Ireland to have an abortion after being raped by a neighbour, being the most notorious. The Supreme Court judgement overturned the ban, and demonstrated that a revised, legal way forward is needed… or do we wait for the next ‘X Case’ to appear?

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IrelandNorth | Dec 05, 2011, 06:35 AM EST

The pro-choice lobby are remarkably silent on cases such as this. If a woman has a right to choose, does this include the right to choose the life over death of the sentinent being she's carrying? Has the embryo/fetus/baby an equivalent right to choose to live? And which prevails?

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Springfield9 | Dec 04, 2011, 10:32 AM EST

I suppose that a coment is being made here about Medical Training in Ghana.

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