Vietnamese woman loses baby after being prescribed abortion pills

By An Nam   April 2, 2018 | 04:38 pm PT
Vietnamese woman loses baby after being prescribed abortion pills
A district medical center in Tien Giang Province mistakenly prescribed abortion pills to at least three pregnant women in March 2018.
The medical center she attended claimed that prenatal and abortion medicines have similar names.

A woman in southern Vietnam has suffered a miscarriage and is still in hospital after a doctor mistakenly prescribed her abortion pills.

Huynh Thi Cuc, 32, from Tan Phuoc District in Tien Giang Province, was two months pregnant when she visited a district medical center for a health check early this month.

She was told by the doctor that her baby was weak, and was given supposedly prenatal medicine.

“After taking two of the 20 pills the doctor gave me, I started bleeding, so my husband took me back to the center,” Cuc said.

The doctors did not offer her emergency care, and instead told her to wait for more symptoms, prompting her family to take her to the provincial maternity hospital.

Doctors there confirmed that Cuc had lost her child due to the pills she had been prescribed.

Cuc had to stay in hospital for a week, and she was not the only victim, said health officials from Tien Giang as they shared the story for the first time on Monday.

Two other pregnant women in Tan Phuoc District were given the same pills at the center.

One of them received emergency aid just in time, and both she and her baby are now in stable condition.

The other did not take the medication.

Le Van Duc, director of Tan Phuoc's medical center, said the mistake happened due to the fact the names of the two pills prescribed for abortion and pregnancy care are similar.

Health authorities in Tien Giang, one and a half hour southwest of Saigon, are investigating the case.

 
 
go to top