An Illinois mom of four is suing her doctor for “wrongful pregnancy” after she gave birth to a child with Sickle Cell disease after he tied her tubes.
Cynthia Williams was born with a sickle cell trait and lost her right ovary to a cyst when she was just 12-years old. After marrying a man with a sickle cell trait, Williams became high risk for conceiving a child with the disease. The couple’s second son was indeed born with Sickle Cell and suffered extensive health issues because of it. It contributed to the couple’s later decision to not have anymore children.
When birth control pills gave her high blood pressure, Williams went to Dr. Byron Rosner of Reproductive Health Associates to perform a procedure to tie her one tube in 2008.
But she got pregnant anyway.,
“I was livid,” Williams told the Daily Mail, recalling the “impossible” blue line on the pregnancy test, quickly confirmed by the flutter of a heartbeat on a sonogram. “I just lost it.”
Williams’ fourth child, daughter Kennadi, was born in February 2010 with sickle cell disease. Williams suffered congestive heart failure after the birth and wound up in the hospital for 2-weeks.
She is suing the doctor for “personal injury to her, emotional distress, and for lost wages” as well as “the extraordinary expenses” she expects to incur raising Kennadi, according to court documents.
“I love Kennadi with all my heart, and that’s the honest-to-God truth,” said Williams. “But it’s been a life change for everybody –- my whole family.”
There is precedent for this case. In 2011, a jury awarded a Portland, Oregon couple $2.9 million dollars for the wrongful birth of a baby with Down Syndrome they said they would’ve aborted if the genetics testing company they used didn’t wrongfully tell them the baby had no abnormalities while in utero.
What do you think? Should the mom get to sue her doctors for the life long care of a child with sickle cell that she wouldn’t have had if the tubal ligation worked.