The Oklahoma Well Baby Law: A Travesty

As a mother and a grandmother, I am angry after learning, first hand, about Oklahoma's Well Baby Law. Basically it allows doctors to do what ever they choose with a woman's body without recourse by the woman. Let me explain.

My daughter, a 27 year old mother of six children, in 1998,(3 her own, 3 step children that she was raising), chose to have a tubaligation after her third child. She is an Intermediate EMT who is now studying for her Paramedic's license.  She decided to have the tubaligation procedure done because having more children would be too hard on her body and financially devastating. They were struggling, as it was, to take care of the six children they now had as a result of this third birth..

She went into the local hospital, ( in a small town), to have the procedure done. 15 minutes into the operation, (which was done with laser), there was some kind of an emergency. An emergency room doctor was called into the operating room. As the ER doctor passed through the waiting room he told my daughter's aunt, (who was there with her), that there was an equipment malfunction. Shortly there after my daughter was taken to her room.

After her post surgery check-up she the assumed the procedure had been done and everything was OK. Nothing was said about the operation, or the equipment failure by the doctor, or anything to suggest there was any kind of problem. She was horribly disfigured in the area of her belly button and there was severe pain, post surgery, which was unusual, considering that laser surgery through the belly button is supposed to be the least intrusive procedure and the least painful method. The disfigurement was a great concern to her. She had had several other procedures done in that area and they had left no scarring and no signs that anything had even been done. However, she knew that she would not be wearing a bikini in the near future so she rationalized this away.

Strangely, her OB-GYN doctor disappeared, closing his office without a word to patients. He left the area soon after her procedure. He didn't even bother to notify his patients or transfer them to other doctors before closing up shop. He also left no records or files.  This seemed bizarre and gave her reason to start worrying. Forty-five days after the procedure, she found herself back into a doctor with severe nausea. The doctor did the obligatory pregnancy test even though she assured him she had just had her tubes tied. She was indeed pregnant.

When she went to the hospital where the procedure was performed they would not provide her with her medical records stating that they were confidential. Without an attorney to order the release of her records, she has been unable to ascertain exactly what went wrong and how close to death she had actually come.  She has no way of knowing why she was not told about the botched surgery, (and that she could get pregnant),  and she cannot get anyone to answer her questions.  She is afraid that she is not alone in this. Since beginning her investigation, she has learned of other women undergoing similar medical incidents involving the same doctor and at the same hospital where the doctor was under contract..

This was devastating to her. She had to put her career on hold, the expenses were piling up again, and because of ill health during the pregnancy, almost lost the baby.  There was no way, she thought, that this could be happening. But, it was. The new doctor could not understand the severe deformity in the area of the belly button. That was no a normal result of the laser surgery. They could only wait until she delivered this child to go in and find out what actually happened.

Despite the pregnancy complications she was experiencing, and because of the excellent care this doctor provided her, the baby was born healthy. Her present doctor again, (putting her life at risk a second time, since surgery, even elective surgery, is always risky) admitted her for another tubaligation. This time he did a bikini line cut and went in to make sure the job was done properly.

 He joked with her that he would take them out and stomp on them if he had to. He found some surprising information during that surgery. Only one ovary had been even touched. The left side had indeed been severed. However, there were no signs that the right ovary had even been touched. There was no incision in that area and no way, without an incision, that it could have been cut. The Right side had been left intact and my daughter had been led to believe that the surgery was completed.

Here lies the problem. Had the doctor told her of the complications or the equipment failure and that it had not been completed, she could have scheduled a second operation later and taken precautions so she did not get pregnant. What I see is that the doctor not only botched the surgery, but failed to inform his patient of this. He also failed to inform her that she could get pregnant. He basically chose her future for her. He took away her right to choose. He, knowing that he had botched the surgery, made his escape, leaving her holding the bag.

When she attempted to contact an attorney to see what her recourse was, she was told about the "Well Baby Law" and that under that law, as long as the baby was born healthy, she had no legal recourse. This means, that any doctor, no matter how negligent, can mutilate a woman's body, as long as it results in a healthy baby. I do not see the rationale in this. The doctor can ignore a woman's choices and do what ever he wants without having to inform his patient that he has not followed her wishes. He can choose not to perform sterilization procedures, lie to the patient and let her think the procedure has been done when it has not. He can bill and accept payment for this procedure, which was not actually done. He can botch the surgery and leave her body grossly deformed and then skip out and leave her holding the bag with no recourse because she had a healthy baby. Where is the logic in this?

If this is not a civil rights case, at the very least, I don't know what is. It is certainly incompetent and grossly negligent. A woman's body should not be violated without some sort of recourse no matter what the outcome of a pregnancy. The end does not justify the means.  A woman's choices are her rights. She should not be forced to have children when she chooses not to. A doctor should not have the right to ignore her rights. She has the right to be informed about the botch and the possibility of getting pregnant so she can take what ever steps she chooses not to get pregnant. The doctor committed fraud and accepted payment for a procedure that was not done. How can any law protect a doctor under those circumstances? And what court would allow such a misguided, travesty of a law creating a  precedence that no Oklahoma attorney seems to want to go up against. It seems to me that this court judgment was made without understanding, or caring about the effects on the women of their state?

When my daughter approached the medical board, (who licenses doctors in the State of Oklahoma), they said that since, technically, no law had been broken under the protection of the Well Baby Law  whose adjudicated precedence was established with just one case in the Oklahoma courts, they would not even hear the case. So, the courts and attorneys of Oklahoma are protecting incompetent doctors who commit fraud and take away women's rights. Obviously, women's rights have been set back to the stone age when women were property owned by men who can do what they choose without anyone saying anything about it.

I want all the women of Oklahoma and the United States,  to understand about this law and know that it too can effect their lives and the lives of their children and families. Perhaps those who made this abusive ruling in the Oklahoma court,  and the case law that was set down as a result of this one decision, should be readdressed and this travesty corrected.

We are not  looking for monetary compensation. The statute of limitations is about to run out on it.  What we hope to establish is that no physician has the right to treat women with such disdain and disrespect and that perhaps by airing this egregious incident, it will prevent it from happening to anyone else.

Christine Bruun

editor@cactusventures.com

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