A WOMAN claims to have suffered severe chemical burns during a routine fertility appointment gone awry.
She sustained the injuries after her doctor accidentally injected acid instead of saline into her womb.
A woman had acid ‘accidentally injected’ into her womb during a routine IVF procedure
The victim – a preschool teacher named Christine – told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the incident took place in December 2022.
Christine was due to have a saline infusion sonogram – a procedure to look inside the uterus – at a clinic in Havertown, Pennsylvania, to check if there were blockages in her Fallopian tubes.
“I felt burning,” Christine told the paper.
She recalled: “I kept saying, ‘Something is off. Something is wrong. Is it supposed to burn?’”
But the preschool teacher said her doctor brushed off her concerns, telling her it was just saline solution.
Following the procedure, Christine noticed red welts spreading around her inner thighs and legs.
It was only then that an ultrasound technician realised had been injected with trichloroacetic acid – which had an 85 per cent concentration.
The acid is usually used for used in chemical peels to remove warts and to treat skin conditions like acne and brown spots.
Christine had suffered first and second-degree chemical burns both inside and outside her body and had to be treated at a local burn centre.
The preschool teacher who was on IVF treatment told the Inquirer her reproductive organs were badly scarred from the horrific incident.
It even still hurts to sit down, months later, she added.
A spokesperson from the clinic told the paper that the doctor who’d bungled the procedure “was not responsible for the acid being in the procedure room” and “was not involved in pre-filling the syringe.”
They added that trichloroacetic acid has been removed from all the clinic’s offices.
Christine and her husband Jason have filed a lawsuit against the clinic, stating they intend to hold it and the doctor accountable for the grossly irresponsible actions that led to this unthinkable scenario unfolding in the first place,” according to their lawyers.