MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH
Aborted baby's head left inside woman
Couple horrified to find face of child after returning home
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: August 19, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
A British hospital is now investigating the case of a woman who had an abortion, but then was shocked to find out the head of her unborn baby had been left inside her.
Davina Chambers, 29, became pregnant this year with her fourth child, but she had just been diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis, a disease eating away at her liver.
SPONSORED LINKS
Free Trial Issue: “Stocks & Commodities” Magazine
Stay informed with market news, information, resources, and expert advice from one of the top traders' magazines. Receive your first year's subscription for the low introductory rate of $49.95.
www.traders.comThe New York Times Home Delivery
Uncover financial insights for your business daily with The New York Times - the authority on market trend news and analysis. Now delivered to your home or business starting at $2.40/wk.
www.nytimes.com/sb-subscription "In January, I was a patient at King's College Hospital because I was jaundiced," Chambers told the Voice, which bills itself as Britain's best black newspaper. "The doctors wanted me to stay in the hospital, but after a week I told them that they had to let me out because I had to go home to take care of my three children. My children have always been my priorities. They're my angels."
Chambers became an outpatient at the facility, going in for checkups every two weeks as she needed continual monitoring.
It was during routine medical tests she discovered she was 12 weeks pregnant.
"At the time I was taking eight tablets a day and had all this radiation from the scans, so I couldn't believe that I could be pregnant," she told the paper.
Chambers made the difficult decision to have an abortion.
"I started thinking about it. Here I am very ill, already with three children, and I was very depressed because of the medication I was on."
She was booked into the hospital for the procedure, and even chose to have a coil contraceptive inserted to prevent any future pregnancies.
"When I woke up on the ward, they said that I had had three scans and everything was fine," she told the Voice.
But once she returned home, an unseemly problem began to make itself known.
Davina Chambers and the face of her unborn child (courtesy: The Voice)
"At midnight, my ex-partner knocked on the door to chell if I was all right. ... I went to the bathroom and as I was sitting there, I just felt something slip out of me as if I had just given birth. I looked in the toilet and saw this lump that seemed to have a bone in it. So I showed it to my former partner."
The couple realized they were looking at the face of their unborn child, seeing the eyes, nose, mouth and ears. The tiny head measured no more than 4 centimeters.
"We just broke down and cried at what we were seeing. We couldn't believe it," Chambers sobbed to the paper.
"I phoned an ambulance and they took me to the hospital to make sure that no other parts were left inside of me. They said I could have died if it had stayed inside me."
She was able to discuss the situation with the doctor who had performed her abortion.
"He leaned over my bedside and said, 'I am so sorry. In all the procedures I've done, I've never come across this,'" she said. "He even tried to take the head away, but I said I wanted to keep it because we wanted to have a proper burial."
A distraught Chambers is now seeking legal advice on what to do next.
"I feel as if I'm going insane now; I can't just let this happen to me," she said.
A spokeswoman for King's College Hospital told the Voice: "We are aware of this patient and we did receive a complaint. We are now investigating but we cannot release any information until our investigation is complete
