Dr. Anthony A. Dunkwu was found “grossly careless” by a medical board after a severely botched abortion on a woman in his care- but the hospital was able to avoid reporting him to the National Practitioner Data Bank, so prospective patients may not know of his history.
In March 2000, Dunkwu estimated that one of his patients was about 10 weeks pregnant. He did not order a sonogram, and began the abortion. Dunkwu thought that he might have perforated the woman’s uterus, and stopped the procedure. A member of his staff took the patient to Inova Alexandria Hospital so that he could complete the abortion under general anesthesia. He examined her again, and estimated her pregnancy at 12 to 13 weeks. He felt a separate mass, which he identified as a fibroid. But the “mass” he had mistaken for a tumor was actually the woman’s uterus! He cut open the uterus and removed a lifeless male fetus weighing about 2.7 pounds. Dunkwu estimated that it was 20 to 22 weeks old. In fact, it was 30 weeks old and probably viable.
Alexandria Hospital placed Dunkwu’s clinical privileges on probation for 29 days, one day short of the punishment that has to be reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank.
An informal board committee found Dunkwu to have been “grossly careless,” according to the board order, and reprimanded him.
Reference: Liz Szabo. “Patients in Peril: How Virginia’s Medical System Lets Questionable Doctors Continue to Practice.” Landmark News Service, February 2, 2003.
Credit: Abortionviolence.com
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