Poor, unmarried mom of 9 sues saying she was sterilized without her consent

Parent Cafe
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<p>"A Springfield mom of nine said yesterday she has been bombarded with hate messages in the wake of a Herald article on her lawsuit against doctors who she claims permanently sterilized her without her written consent.</p>

<p>Tessa Savicki, 35, has received a dozen nasty text messages and comments on her Facebook page since Sunday’s article on the suit. She said she’s been attacked for being a poor, single mom who is on public assistance…</p>

<p>Savicki’s suit against Baystate Medical Center, two nurses and three doctors claims they performed a tubal ligation without her consent on Dec. 19, 2006, following the delivery of her ninth child.</p>

<p>[Public</a> backlash stuns sterilized mother of nine - BostonHerald.com](<a href=“http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1223441]Public”>http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1223441)</p>

<p>From the original story:</p>

<p>"Savicki acknowledged that some may feel little sympathy for her situation, but cautioned against public judgment because she is a poor, unmarried mother of 9.</p>

<p>“I would never have the right to tell anyone else ‘because you have this many kids that’s enough,’ ” she said. “That’s no one’s right to say that. It’s my choice. No one has the right to say you’ve had enough.</p>

<p>“I take care of my kids. I love my kids. I was not ready to make that kind of decision,” she said of the permanent sterilization.</p>

<p>Savicki said her life has stabilized in the last decade after a rocky start. She had her first child at 13 and dropped out of high school in the ninth grade.</p>

<p>Savicki said she’s been in a relationship with her fiance, Angel Flores Tirado, 36, since she was 25. She lives with him and the couple’s three children. Tirado helps support the family with his full-time job as a personal care assistant. Savicki said she’s had eight of her nine children while in committed relationships and hoped for one more child with Tirado."</p>

<p>[Mom</a> of 9 cries foul - BostonHerald.com](<a href=“http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100103mom_of_9_cries_foul_claim_i_was_sterilized_against_my_will/]Mom”>http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100103mom_of_9_cries_foul_claim_i_was_sterilized_against_my_will/)</p>

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<p>Actually, she can still have children by IVF - I hear there’s a doctor in California who could help her out, although he may be about to lose his license.</p>

<p>I would be very surprised if her tubes were tied without her consent. If they were, then she certainly has a case. I’m surprised that CVS paid her off for the expired spermicide, though!</p>

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<p>Here we go again. A woman that says “I take care of my kids”, but she isn’t. I am, and everybody else is with their taxes.
I am so sick of it.</p>

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<p>Sure, I agree that we shouldn’t touch another woman’s body, but what can we tax payers do about it? ““That’s no one’s right to say that. It’s my choice.”" I’d say she should pay for her own needs, and not expect someone to help her if she’s on public assistance. </p>

<p>We should a choice too.</p>

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<p>I don’t think that she should have been sterilized without her consent. However, her having so many children whom she obviously can’t take care of concerns me deeply.</p>

<p>In case you missed this in the original story:</p>

<p>“Savicki has nine children from several men, is unemployed and relies on public assistance for two of the four children who live with her. She receives supplemental security income, or SSI, for a disability, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, she said. Her mother has custody of three of her children. Two of her children are no longer minors.”</p>

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<p>I noticed the NHL, and the fact that she doesn’t actually care for all the children. She sounds like a real grifter. The public assistance is the least of it; she managed to get a settlement from CVS for failure of expired spermicide and now she is going after several doctors and nurses, who are almost certainly innocent.</p>

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<p>I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the doctors who sterilized this irresponsible, immature woman. Thanks guys! :)</p>

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<p>[Mom</a> of 9 cries foul - BostonHerald.com](<a href=“http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?&articleid=1222682&format=&page=2&listingType=Loc#articleFull]Mom”>http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?&articleid=1222682&format=&page=2&listingType=Loc#articleFull)</p>

<p>“This is the second time Savicki has sued over reproductive issues. In 2001, she reached a settlement with CVS and a spermacide company after she became pregnant with her now 12-year-old daughter after claiming she bought and used an expired spermacide, according to federal court documents.”</p>

<p>Am I upset that she can’t have any more children naturally?--------No.</p>

<p>Were her rights violated?------------Yes. </p>

<p>I really do find it hard to believe that the doctors would perform this procedure without prior written consent from the patient. I wonder if there is more to this story than what’s been printed in the paper. In short: IMO–It’s a good thing that she won’t be popping out any more babies and getting additional public assistance money for them. On the other hand, without written consent, the doctors did overstep their bounds.</p>

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<p>Me too. I wonder if the consent was gotten when she was incapacitated in some way (medication, etc.) or she signed the consent form thinking it was for procedure X and it was the form for tubal ligation. It will be interesting to learn more details.</p>

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<p>Stay tuned. This will be better than – well, as good as – Octomom.</p>

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<p>No one should be sterilized without giving consent, of course. If the physician actually did this - and I can’t imagine an MD being that reckless or foolish - he or she deserves to be sued. But I’m not sorry this woman won’t be reproducing any longer.</p>

<p>What I don’t understand is how she could get a settlement from CVS because she bought and used expired spermicide, and then conceived a child. What was the evidence here? If she knowingly bought expired spermicide and willingly used it, how can CVS be at fault? If she didn’t buy/use it knowingly, how did she learn the spermicide had expired? I thought it was generally accepted that spermicide alone is not a terribly effective means of contraception. How can we know that the child was conceived because the spermicide’s effectiveness had expired instead of because of the method’s innate inefficacy? How can we know the mother used it at all?</p>

<p>I don’t get it.</p>

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<p>^I don’t know anything about the case but sometimes it’s cheaper for the companies involved to pay a small settlement rather than to fight the case in court. Perhaps from a financial and public relations perspective, paying a small settlement was a cheap way to make the case go away.</p>

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<p>The woman is engaging in child abuse. It is not possible to provide adequate care to 9 children when you are single and poor and stupid. I am glad she cannot have more kids. I hope child support enforcement goes after the sperm donor.</p>

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<p>I would tend to believe that she was distraught over not having any more children, except for that whole lawsuit over the spermicide “failure”.</p>

<p>Mistakes happen in hospitals, all the time. The wrong leg being amputated, the wrong side being operated on. </p>

<p>This may be a huge mistake on the part of the doctors, but from my vantage point, it was the best thing for this woman. Nine children is enough - particularly when you cannot afford to care for them.</p>

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<p>sounds like a serial spermicidal sterilized suer.</p>

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<p>I agree that every taxpayer is taking care of her children. I personally am sick of it.
I find it hard to believe that consent was not obtained, but according to the article, the hospital admitted not having the consent on file. She did have an IUD for them to use. I don’t know why they didn’t use that. She obviously wanted birth control. There is more to the story that we kow.
She is not only poor but unwise(trying to be kind). Whre is social services? If you get public assistance, you usually have a case worker.</p>

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<p>It’s possible I don’t understand this. Perhaps my CC friends can help me get this.</p>

<p>Why would a doctor implant an IUD immediately after childbirth, anyway? Wouldn’t this be a risk? Not to be indelicate, but there is bleeding and cramping and I can’t see how it would be wise or smart for a woman to get one of these implanted right after delivery.</p>

<p>Maybe it is possible to do that right after delivery, but it seems kind of risky to me. </p>

<p>Anyone care to weigh in on this one? A medical professional, maybe?</p>

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<p>While I can’t know what is in her mind, from what (admittedly) little I’ve heard so far, it sure makes it sound like she is a schemer.
As I understand it, she sued CVS on the grounds that she was trying to prevent a pregnancy and their negligence led her into buying an inferior product permitting her to wrongfully get pregnant. Now she chooses to have another child but wants to sue doctors because she can’t have more children in the future? Perhaps i am too cynical, but it sounds to me like the plan to fund her children’s support is to get money from lawsuits.</p>

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<p>Maybe it’s just me, but I would likely need years of therapy if I found out my parents sued because they considered me a “contraception error”. Wouldn’t want to be that child.</p>

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<p>If she had to dye her hair to avoid recognition, it’s pretty strange that she posed with her children for a Globe photo in the follow-up story.</p>