Misread ultrasound resulted in abortion

An Australian specialist has been criticised for misreading an ultrasound that resulted in the wrongful abortion of a Wellington woman's baby.

A follow-up check at Hutt Hospital nine days later showed the baby was just in an unusual position, but was alive and well.

However, by that stage the woman had been given medication to terminate the pregnancy and the baby later died, the Dominion Post reported today.

A report into the case also criticised the woman's obstetrician for terminating the pregnancy after just one ultrasound, when the scans were known to be inaccurate in such cases.

The report, issued to The Dominion Post under the Official Information Act, found the mother should have been told the diagnosis might be wrong and given more time to decide.

At the time of the incident, Hutt Hospital had a shortage of radiologists and was forced to send urgent after-hours scans to specialists in Australia.

The hospital now has four resident radiologists, but it still relied on some remote after-hours cover, which continued to represent a risk, the report said.

The woman, who was 5-1/2 weeks pregnant, went to Hutt Hospital's emergency department on New Year's Eve 2007 because she had been bleeding and had abdominal cramps. An ultrasound was taken and sent to Australia.

The radiologist there wrongly diagnosed an ectopic pregnancy, in which the foetus grows outside the womb. Ectopic foetuses do not survive and, if not properly treated, the mother can die.

Clinicians reviewing the case agreed it was difficult to diagnose some types of ectopic pregnancy accurately with ultrasound, which was why the woman's obstetrician should have waited and requested a second test.

- NZPA