Baby fights for life in Italy after abortion attempt· Mother wanted procedure after fears of abnormality
· Law requires resuscitation if foetus shows signs of life
John Hooper in Rome
Thursday March 8, 2007
The Guardian
A baby was struggling for life in an intensive care unit in Florence yesterday after being resuscitated following an attempted abortion at 22 weeks' gestation because of indications of abnormalities which turned out to be false.
The baby's mother, who has not been identified, was admitted to hospital for a late abortion at the end of last week after being told her child might have abnormalities. The child showed signs of life after the procedure and, under Italian law, doctors were obliged to try to save it.
The baby, who weighed 500 grams (17oz), was resuscitated and found not to have any deformity. It had a cerebral haemorrhage, but it was not immediately clear if the haemorrhage was because of the attempted abortion.
The Italian news agency Ansa yesterday reported that the child's parents were "in shock".
A statement from the Meyer hospital in Florence, where the baby was delivered, said the mother and father would not be named because "we have respected the request for privacy made to us by the child's relatives".
The story began at the Careggi hospital, also in Florence, which attracted international publicity last month when three patients there were given transplants using organs from an HIV-positive donor.
The head of the hospital's gynaecological department, Gianfranco Scarselli, denied any negligence in the latest case. Speaking to the newspaper La Repubblica, he said the mother had first undergone tests in the 11th week of her pregnancy.
These had "raised certain doubts among the staff with respect to possible deformities". The doubts had vanished with a subsequent test, but they reappeared in the 20th week, when the woman returned for an ecography.
There was no sign of the baby's stomach, leading doctors to suspect that it might have an oesophageal atresia or tracheoesophageal fistula - or both. This would have meant at least one abnormality in the tube linking the child's mouth to its stomach.
Both conditions can be put right with surgery. However, the oesophageal atresia operation in Italy has a success rate of only 75% to 80%.
A second ecography gave the same result. But since neither of the two tests was conclusive, said Dr Scarselli, the patient was advised to have an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan.
This could have established if the baby was deformed. Instead, the mother consulted a private doctor and returned to the hospital determined to have an abortion.
"There was nothing doing. She was adamant," Dr Scarselli was quoted as saying. An appointment was made for the pregnancy to be terminated last Friday at the Meyer hospital.
Dr Scarselli said staff at the Careggi had explained to the mother that the law on abortions after the first 90 days of pregnancy provided for reanimation of the foetus if it appeared to be able to live.
"That is what happened in the operating theatre," he said.
La Repubblica quoted a source present at the time as saying that it was seen immediately that the foetus had a beating heart.
By the time of the attempted abortion, the mother was in the 22nd week of pregnancy. Italy's 1978 abortion law allows women up to 90 days in which to terminate a pregnancy.
Beyond that point, abortions are permitted only if there is a grave danger to the woman or a suspected deformation of the foetus.
However, the law also stipulates that, in such cases, "the doctor who carries out the operation must take every suitable measure to safeguard the life of the foetus".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,2028799,00.html
