Published: Aug. 01, 2023, 12:07 p.m.
By Claudia Dimuro | cdimuro@pennlive.com
A woman went into a Pennsylvanian fertility treatment center expecting a routine procedure.
She instead became the victim of a horrible medical foul-up.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports how 33-year-old Christine (identified by her first name only at her request) had visited Main Line Fertility in 2022 for what she had believed to be a check-up on her fallopian tubes for potential blockages.
The same Inquirer article details how the Montessori preschool teacher — who lives with her husband, Jason, (also identified by just his first name) in the suburbs outside of the city — began to experience intense pain after Dr. Allison Bloom injected her with what was supposed to be saline. It was, instead, trichloroacetic acid.
“I kept saying, ‘Something is off,’” tells Christine to the publication. “‘Something is wrong. Is it supposed to burn?’”
According to the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, trichloroacetic acid is used in the making of medicine and pharmaceuticals as well as pesticides. It’s also classified as a hazardous substance due to its corrosive nature, and could result in ailments such as shortness of breath and skin burns should someone be exposed to it.
As a result of what one of the couple’s lawyer, Robert S. Miller, call’s this “unthinkable” incident, Christine became afflicted with “white blotches” inside her reproductive track; a uterine lining that was “just all burned;” damage stretching from her fallopian tube to her colon; and scarring down the back of her legs. The long term affects of the acid remain unknown.
The Inquirer states how Main Line Fertility later noted via statement that Dr. Bloom was not at fault as she wasn’t responsible for the presence of the acid in the procedure room, nor did she refill the syringe. Nevertheless, Dr. Bloom was named in a lawsuit filed by the couple in March seeking monetary damages.
This isn’t the only time Main Line Fertility has been under fire: A Law.com report states it was recently hit with a class action lawsuit that accuses the health network of shady website pixel tracking.
Who was responsible for the acid remains unconfirmed. While Main Line Fertility told the couple they wouldn’t have to pay for the procedure, the two receive a bill monthly for over $530. The practice states they’ll take them to a collection agency August if it’s not paid by mid-August.