- Priscilla Dray had to have all four limbs removed after contracting an infection following an abortion in July 2011, a court in France has reportedly heard
- “I was massacred,” she said, per local outlet France 3. Bordeaux publication Sud Oueststated the hospital where the operation was done is being prosecuted for “unintentional injuries”
- As her symptoms worsened, Dray had to have both legs, as well as her right forearm and her left hand amputated in August 2011
A woman in France is speaking out almost 14 years after having to have all four of her limbs amputated after contracting an infection following an induced abortion.
On Monday, Feb. 17, Priscilla Dray, who was 35 at the time, appeared before Bordeaux Criminal Court alongside doctors from the Bordeaux University Hospital, where she had the operation on July 22, 2011, per local station France 3.
Two days after the voluntary termination of pregnancy (VTP), the mother of three was readmitted to hospital after she fell ill. She has since had both legs, as well as her right forearm and her left hand amputated, according to the outlet, which stated her symptoms progressed and the amputation operation was done on Aug. 25, 2011.
“I was massacred,” she said in court, according to the station.
Dray, who has had both hands transplanted, insisted, “Medical errors like this must not happen again,” the outlet reported.
A photo of a hospital road sign in France.
ricochet64/Getty
Per local Bordeaux newspaper Sud Ouest, Dray was infected with staphylococcus A. Per the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the infection is a “gram-positive bacteria that [can] cause a wide variety of clinical diseases.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) added, “Staph can cause serious infections if it gets into the blood and can lead to sepsis or death.”
Sud Ouest reported that the day after undergoing the abortion, Dray went to the emergency room at the hospital “suffering from fatigue and fever,” but was sent home without antibiotics. The publication added that the hospital is being prosecuted for “unintentional injuries.”
According to France 3, Dr. Martial D had a “brief call with the intern who performed the tests,” and thought Dray’s condition was “satisfactory.” However, he recommended that she have the intrauterine device (IUD) that had been inserted after her operation removed before she headed home.
The defendant insisted when asked whether he would prescribe an antibiotic today, “It’s hard to hear, but I would have the same attitude as 14 years ago,” per the outlet.
Dray said, “It’s awful. It makes my blood run cold. He shouldn’t be practicing anymore.”
The doctor’s lawyer, Arnaud Dupin, claimed during the hearing, “We can’t systematically prescribe antibiotics. For my client, in the absence of fever, pain and results on gynecological examinations, nothing suggested that there was serious sepsis.”
In court, Dray recalled that on July 24 — two days after her operation — that her “legs felt like pieces of wood.” Her doctor in Cap Ferret, France was thought to have recommended antibiotics in a letter sent to the hospital’s emergency room doctors. However, it took nearly five hours for her to be given the medication, per the outlet, despite her being admitted to the gynecological emergency room at 12 p.m. local time that day.
“They didn’t believe me, I had to beg. They took me for a bourgeois woman who was putting on a show,” Dray told the judges, per the outlet.
She claimed that test results indicated a sign of infection, but senior colleague Doctor François V. reportedly hadn’t looked at a letter sent by Dray’s doctor, per the station.
“I don’t know why the intern didn’t tell me anything,” he said in court of the intern who admitted Dray on July 24.
“How the emergency room works is not up to my client. If you can’t trust your intern, then the hospital is malfunctioning,” his lawyer, Master Bernard Benaïem, added, per the outlet.
Per the station, Dray’s chances of survival on the night of July 24 were estimated at 5 percent as her health continued to deteriorate, before she underwent the amputations just over a month later.
“I trusted and this is the state they put me in,” Dray said in a February 2021 Zone Interditedocumentary interview, France 3 reported.
