<p>Wow, you were young. Have you ever considered writing the MD a letter, explaining how you felt and how your decision has impacted your life? It may only serve to help you and inform him that what he did was unethical. It may help another woman somewhere.</p>
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<p>If those risks were known at that time and you were not told or at least presented with them on your consent form, that is clearly unethical and would have given you a good case for a lawsuit. Obviously, the statute of limitations would prevent you from getting any compensation now. Not that you are even interested in that; but it would have prevented him from doing the same thing to someone else.</p>
<p>When I asked my OB if he would tie my tubes at age 32 and he refused, I was pretty irritated because I believed he was not respecting my ability to make an informed decision or that I was incapable of knowing what I wanted. But 23?! That is absolutely outrageous that he would consent to do the procedure, much less pressure you to do it! Really incredible.</p>
<p>It seems that OBs “push” tubals on patients because quite a high percentage of women want permanent sterilization after two kids. (Yes, they certainly tried to push it on me after my 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th. . . but I never agreed.) I’m sorry for anyone who had this done without full knowledge/consent. However, I think the welfare mom of 9 is just looking for a way to make $$ through a lawsuit, as she had success with this before. . .though it will be hard to convince the judge she really wants more children now when she sued before because she DIDN’T want to get pregnant. I can see why the doctor would think she “ought to be sterilized” since she can’t take care of the kids she has, but it is hard to believe any doc would do this without signed consent. </p>
<p>I know a couple who felt terrible about (the man’s) sterilization–they thought 3 kids was enough at the time. After several years he had a reversal, which was “successful,” but the wife was not able to get pregnant again–they ended up adopting two more children.</p>
<p>When I was in my 20s, I worked at a hospital. A pregnant co-worker often dragged me up to the OB floor to “look at the babies” during lunch hour. Once she ran into a high school classmate there who greeted her with “I’m DONE! Hooray!”–She told us she’d just had her second kid and had her tubal. She was 23. I was so shocked that someone could “know for sure” and make that final decision at such a young age. She seemed SO much happier with the idea that she’d never have any more kids than with the baby she’d just given birth to! I was horrified, actually.</p>
<p>I feel sick about what happened to you, RebelCats. You would have a good chance of becoming pregnant through IVF, because you are so young (29 or 30, right?), although these procedures are quite expensive.</p>
<p>I just turned 29 this past year. Right now my family is in a state of transition, I am in college and starting a career, that it would be at least 3-5 years before it would be probable for me to go down that road. Right now I work in a school sitting with troubled teens and it has lessen the ache of having no more biological kids. </p>
<p>I know I have taken this way off topic I feel, but I can see how some doctors would over step the ethical bounds with some patients.</p>
<p>I have a friend whose wife had her tubal reversed at the age of 37, who then went on to have three children in 4 years. So you may have time.</p>
<p>I find this story difficult to believe. Any hospital that receives federal funding takes the timing of consent papers for tubal ligation very seriously. They must be signed in triplicate no later than 30 days before the birth in order for medical assistance to pay. If it’s only 29 days, the tubal does not take place. The patient receives a copy of the papers for her own files, too. These safeguards are in place to prevent patients from being sterilized against their will.</p>
<p>A man who has sex and fathers children, (even without his consent), and can not support them faces criminal consequences. Yet a women who does the same thing gets sympathy and government support. </p>
<p>Ergo, more imprisoned men and more impoverished children. And somehow in this strange world this is considered good? </p>
<p>She is a serial child abuser who has learned how to turn a profit by it.</p>
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I had my tubal ligation at 29 immediately after the birth of my third child. I would have been extremely annoyed to have a doctor refuse to do it. Sometimes women DO know what they want.</p>
<p>I would never go to an OB that would decide for me how old I need to be before he would respect my wishes. </p>
<p>It’s just amazing to me that people think that is okay. I simply cannot fathom having more faith in a man than in the woman herself on this issue. </p>
<p>As for the OP, if she was sterilized without her consent then the details of her life do not matter. However, there is a huge difference between not giving consent and regretting having given consent later in life.</p>
<p>Wow, it never occured to me that my OB-GYN would refuse my request for a tubal ligation. We decided to have it done before our last was born. I was 34 at the time. I only planned on having two children. I actually got pregnant while taking a birth control pill that was later found to be defective ( tell me about it ) and discontinued…No regrets at all !</p>
<p>^^^^^^Yes, I can relate to all of the above posts. That said, a practitioner doesn’t have to perform elective procedures if he doesn’t feel it is in the best interest of the patient. I could have gone elsewhere, but I chose not to. My husband wanted another child, I did not. He asked me to reconsider. I did, still didn’t change my mind and had the tubal during another surgery which was not elective.</p>
<p>I can totally see not going to a doctor who won’t do what you want. But I was happy with him otherwise, so to me, while irritating, it wasn’t a deal breaker, especially given my husband’s feelings at the time.</p>
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<p>Absolutely. If she didn’t sign a consent form, this hospital is totally SOL from a legal perspective. If she did sign it, her lawsuit willl be dead in the water if the hospital fights it.</p>
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<p>Not if they can’t produce the document, and so far they haven’t come up with it.</p>
<p>I don’t know why any woman would undergo a sterilization when the procedure of male sterilization is faster, less invasive and cheaper.
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<p>I mean really- women have the babies shouldn’t the men have some physical involvement besides the obvious ?</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity … how would one determine damages? Cost of surgery to reverse the ligation? Loss of potential child welfare payments based on one new baby every couple of years until age what, fifty? sixty? Could the hospital recover part of the judgement by suing each fertile boyfriend of this woman $120K per “likely pregnancy prevented” for “cost of child rearing prevented?” Or would it be some amorphous determination, like $60 million “'just because”?</p>
<p>I had an IUD when I was 18 cause I didn’t want to get pregnant and because the birth control pills at that time made me ill.</p>
<p>I became pregnant anyway which scared me to death and I had an early elective abortion.</p>
<p>I had heard of drs occasionally implanting IUDs at delivery but usually at the soonest , that would have been reserved for a 6- week checkup.</p>
<p>But just given my present knowledge of how it works, a diapragham and condoms , seem to be more reliable.</p>
<p>If this did go to trial, I would be curious of the jury would be sympathetic to this woman.given the fact that the public has been sending her hate mail. Maybe the hospital should not settle and go all the way.</p>
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<p>Not all women only have sex with men who are in a committed relationship with them, and it’d be tough to convince someone that you’re just hooking up with to undergo any form of surgery.</p>
<p>“Hey, studmuffin; just sign these forms in triplicate and pay this deductible and we’ll be ready to parrr-tayyyyy!”</p>
<p>post 55, EK4, you are kidding right, in your second sentence?</p>