Brno - At the age of 7, she is healthy and, at first sight, she is no different from other girls of her age. However, this girl from Vysočina in Central Bohemia wasn´t supposed to be born at all.
Her mother underwent an abortion seven years ago. It wasn´t successful though, and the woman remained pregnant without knowing that at that time.
Now, she sues the hospital in Jihlava, where she underwent the operation eight years ago. She is asking for 300,000 CZK as compensation. She believes, that the unsuccessful surgery harmed her, as well as her daughter.
The woman gave Aktuálně.cz an interview and the editors have her name and address available. However, taking into account the psyche of the little girl, the editors decided not to publish any further information on their identities.
Family secret
The reason is, there is a risk the daughter will find out that her mum didn´t want her. "If this happened, the child would very likely suffer some kind of mental disease," warns Taťjana Horká, child psychologist from Brno.
"I was eighteen years old. I studied at high school and lived with my parents," the woman, now 26, described the circumstances, under which she became pregnant.
When she found out she was expecting twins, she decided to have an abortion. "It seemed like it went all well, however, at the check-up one month later, I was told I was still pregnant."
50/50 abortion
One foetus stayed in the mother´s body. It was too late for another abortion. At the age of 19, the student gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
Although the woman lives a happy life with her daughter, her new husband and two other younger children, she demands the hospital compensation for her past trauma.
Four years of unplanned maternity leave, lost salary, travel expenses to the gynecologist´s in Brno, worries about her health and the health of her baby. These are the facts, the mother blames the hospital for.
Regional Court in Brno will hear the case on Friday. "Doctors´ Chamber hasn´t registered any complaint about unsuccessful abortion. If the court confirmed the woman´s financial demands, it would be a precedent decision," stated Jan Mach, head of the Legal Department of the Czech Doctor´s Chamber.
Gynecologists: It happens sometimes
That is to say, the Czech law has never considered a child to be something that can cause financial loss to people.
According to Jan Mach, the unsuccessful abortion also cannot be seen as a doctors´ error, if they warned the woman beforehand that a 100% success was not guaranteed.
"For now, we don´t have any comments on the case," announced Martin Šuma, the general manager of the hospital in Jihlava.
Gynecologists know cases of unsuccessful abortions.
"In fact, it happens sometimes the foetus stays in the mother´s body, although these are exceptions. The thing is, the surgeon can´t see properly during the abortion, what exactly he is removing," explained Vladimír Dvořák from the Czech Gynecological and Obstetrical Society.
Vladimír Dvořák has no doubt, that removing one foetus can´t have damaged the other one. "If the surgery was performed properly, then the other foetus shouldn´t have been damaged," he thinks.
Psychologist says: Broken bond
However, the attempted abortion and following months of permanent stress might have badly affected the child´s wellbeing. "My daughter is more tearful than the other kids," claims the woman.
Her guess is confirmed by a child psychologist, Taťjana Horká. She says that especially in the case of twins, by removing one of the foetuses, the bond between the two of them is broken.
"The foetuses were devoloping alongside one another. The one that stayed in the mother´s body, suffers trauma because of the surgery. Metaphorically, it is like breaking in the children´s house," described Horká.
The trauma might have gone that far that the child has problems making social contacts, it might tend to deliberately hurt itself and takes loss of its close ones extremely hard.
"What´s more, the child´s mental condition might be badly affected by the current fuss around the case. The information that her own mother didn´t want her, definitely shouldn´t reach the child," added psychologist.
"No regrets"
The woman from Vysočina doesn´t admit the trial and media fuss could cause any harm to her little girl. "She is still very young," she says.
She doesn´t regret the decision from her student years. "At that time, I was simply in a situation, when I didn´t want any children. Me and the father of my child, we were still children ourselves," she says.
She only regrets the fact, that the abortion was in vain in the end. "I might have had both children, after all," she admits.
