ENGLEWOOD, N.J._Metropolitan Medical Associates in Englewood, among the state's largest abortion clinics, reached a $1.9 million settlement with a woman who suffered massive hemorrhaging, a coma, a stroke and a hysterectomy after she had an abortion at the facility in 2007.
The incident led to an inspection by the state, which shut the facility down for more than a month in 2007 until improvements were made.
The settlement includes $1 million from the facility, $575,000 from one of the doctors involved in the case and $325,000 from another doctor who had assisted. The settlement was first reported in the New Jersey Law Journal.
Rasheedah Dinkins filed the suit in 2007 against the facility and two doctors, Keith Gresham, who was Dinkins' attending physician, and Nicholas Kotopoulos, who assisted after Dinkins started to bleed excessively.
Dinkins, then 20, visited the clinic in January of that year for a second-trimester abortion. The clinic is one of only a few in the state to perform second-trimester abortions.
Hours after the procedure, Dinkins, back at home in Newark, became sluggish, then was unable to walk or talk. Her mother called for an ambulance, and, by the time it arrived, Dinkins had passed out.
At Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, doctors gave her transfusions and removed her damaged uterus. She suffered a stroke and her left lung collapsed from the severe blood loss. She needed a respirator and tracheotomy. Dinkins was in a coma for three weeks.
Newark Beth Israel filed a formal complaint with the state, saying it was concerned the abortion may have been done improperly. That led to a state inquiry of Metropolitan Medical, which performs more than 10,000 abortions a year.
State inspectors found dirty forceps, rusty crochet hooks used to remove IUDs, and a quarter-inch of dark red "dirt and debris" under an examining table.
The state let the facility reopen in March of 2007.
Frank Capese, a Westfield-based lawyer who represents the facility, said he could not discuss details of the settlement because the facility's insurance carrier instituted a strict confidentiality agreement as part of the settlement.
"However, there's always inherent danger in any medical procedure," Capese said.
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Information from: The Record of Bergen County, http://www.northjersey.com