The life of a woman in her 20s was saved two weeks ago at Wolfson Medical Center
after an illegal abortion allegedly performed in her home by another woman
without medical credentials led to a dangerous infection.
The Holon
hospital managed to save her uterus and her fertility by treating her sepsis
intensively with large doses of antibiotics.
Prof. Avraham Golan, head of
the obstetrics and gynecology department said on Tuesday that he does not
remember ever seeing such a case in his 30-year career.
The woman who
underwent the illegal abortion was in her sixth or seventh week of pregnancy.
The hospital said that the abortion was not performed under sterile conditions,
thus giving her a severe infection that spread through her body.
“We
struggled for her life and her womb, and didn’t let up for a moment,” said
Golan, who added that tissue from the fetus that remained in the womb after the
abortion was removed in the hospital.
Abortions are approved by hospital
committees if the woman is below 18 or above 40, if the pregnancy resulted from
illegal relations or to an unmarried couple, if the fetus would endanger the
mother’s physical and mental condition or if the fetus was not normal. The woman
apparently did not receive authorization for a legal abortion.
Wolfson
Medical Center, a government-owned hospital, reported the case to the Health
Ministry and the Israel Police. Wolfson’s own public abortion committee last
year approved 241 abortions and in the whole country, 97 percent were approved
by such committees, leading to over 21,000 legal abortions.
The Health
Ministry was asked to comment on what action would be taken to identify and
punish the woman who performed the abortion, but the ministry spokeswoman did
not reply to the question.
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