Clinic sued by woman following an abortionShe said she spent a month in a coma after the abortion, which she now regrets having had.
By Wayne Parry
Associated Press
NEWARK, N.J. - A Newark woman who said she spent a month in a coma after undergoing an abortion at a Bergen County clinic sued the facility and several doctors there yesterday.
The lawsuit was filed in Superior Court in Essex County against Metropolitan Medical Associates, an Englewood clinic that performs thousands of abortions a year. The clinic was ordered closed last Friday by state health officials until it corrects the "immediate and serious" risks.
The closure is only the second time in the last five years that state health regulators have shut down one of New Jersey's more than 600 ambulatory-care facilities on allegations of deficient care.
Rasheedah Dinkins, who is still recovering in a hospital, said she regrets having ended her pregnancy. "I think it's horrible what I had to go through," she said from her hospital bed. In retrospect, she added, "I probably wouldn't have made this choice."
Dinkins said she was told by her mother and personnel at the hospital that she'd actually died in the ambulance on the way there, and was revived en route. She said she regained the ability to speak only on Tuesday.
"We expect to get to the bottom of why this incredibly horrible result could have happened from such a simple procedure," said her attorney, Adam Slater.
The shutdown order cites problems involving infection control, instruments and equipment used for sterilization. A woman who answered the telephone at the clinic said the facility remained closed, but had no other immediate comment yesterday.
The clinic's Web site says its physicians have a complication rate of less than 1 per 1,000 procedures, calling its staff "the finest in the state of New Jersey."
Gloria Mozas of Cliffside Park is also suing the clinic, contending that doctors there wrongly diagnosed her tubal pregnancy in 2003 and told her she had miscarried when, in fact, she was carrying two live fetuses. She said she was heartened that the state had shut the clinic. "I've been waiting for those doors to be locked for 31/2 years," she said.
Marie Tasy, executive director of New Jersey Right To Life, called on other women who have had poor experiences at the clinic to come forward.
Dinkins, 20, said she felt ill after undergoing the abortion, and had to be rushed to a hospital by ambulance after she passed out at home, her family said.
At the hospital, she received blood transfusions and her uterus was removed, Slater said. The attorney also said Dinkins suffered a stroke due to blood loss, and one of her lungs collapsed.
""I think it's horrible what I had to go through," she said from her hospital bed."
Seems to me that she got what she deserved. Too bad they don't all end up this way...