“32-year-old Z. from a small town in Małopolska, in the 19th week of her pregnancy, the bladder burst and the amniotic fluid broke. She reported to the local hospital. They ordered her to observe the fetal movement and wait. She waited a week. She did not sleep, hardly ate. Finally she called to the Federation “- write representatives of the Federation on thing Women and Family Planning that fights for reproductive justice and respect for patients’ rights.
“I found your phone on the Internet. Will you help? I don’t have the strength anymore. The children have been with my sister for a week. They want to go home. They are small children: 4 and 5” – as Federa reports, the woman said in an interview with a Federation consultant.
The organization sent the woman to specialist tests that were carried out in a hospital designated by Feder. “The results showed that the fetus was burdened with numerous lethal defects and could have died at any moment. The doctors did not wait. They saw the threat to her life” – Federa says.
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Donald Tusk evaluates the abortion law in Poland
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At the end of November, the media circulated information about a 26-year-old who was refused to terminate the pregnancy, although the fetus had a lethal defect, and the woman suffered from severe mental disorders. The hospital in Białystok, refusing to perform an abortion, referred to the opinion of Ordo Iuris.
Federa: It is worse after the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal. The scale is difficult to estimate
In an interview with Gazeta.pl, Federa’s lawyer, Kamila Ferenc, emphasizes that since the death of Izabela from Pszczyna, the foundation has received many more inquiries and similar stories. – I do not know if there are more of them or if there are just more women who know about us and boldly describe their experiences. It is definitely worse after the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal, but it is difficult to estimate the scale – he reports.
We answer several or a dozen calls a day. Sometimes it is a question of how to terminate a pregnancy with fetal defects in Poland, sometimes the need to intervene in the event of an unlawful refusal of abortion (as in Białystok), and sometimes a situation of delaying by doctors in a situation of threat to the health or life of the patient, e.g. failure to terminate an ectopic pregnancy
– he adds.
The case of Izabela from Pszczyna
In September, a similar story ended tragically. 30-year-old Izabela from Pszczyna trafi³a to the hospital with so-called anhydrous in the 22nd week of pregnancy. Unfortunately, the patient died of septic shock. The legal counselor of the family, Jolanta Budzowska, informed about the case. – Consequences of the judgment TK of October 20, 2020, file ref. K 1/20 in practice. Patient for 22 weeks, anhydrous. Doctors waited for the fetus to die. The fetus died, the patient died. Septic shock – said Budzowska.
After the story was publicized by the family plenipotentiary, protests were organized throughout the country, including against the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal (of October 22, 2020) on abortion. According to the ruling, abortion for embryopathological reasons (due to fatal and irreversible damage or malformations to the fetus) was declared unconstitutional.
The NFZ introduced results an inspection carried out at the County Hospital in Pszczyna, which revealed “a number of gross irregularities”. The opinion on the course of the patient’s hospitalization in the hospital in Pszczyna was issued by prof. Mirosław Wielgoś, national consultant in the field of perinatology. – There was no adequate response from the staff. Appropriate tests were not commissioned, her condition was not monitored, and no steps were taken to prevent this tragic event – he said.
The professor emphasized that Work doctors in the current legal state is very difficult. – Every doctor has the back of his head that we have the right to do so. It is an imperfect law that requires changes, he added.
The latest information on the matter can be found here:
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