Aussie hospital reportedly aborts wrong fetus

CANBERRA, Australia - A healthy 32-week-old fetus was accidentally terminated in an Australian hospital after medical staff mistook him for his sick twin, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

The mother had decided to abort one of the twin boys on medical advice after learning one had a congenital heart defect, the Herald Sun newspaper reported.

But on Tuesday, the wrong baby was injected, terminating the healthy pregnancy.

The mother then had an emergency cesarean section and the sick child was also terminated in a three-hour operation.

The Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne would not confirm details, but said Thursday "a distressing clinical accident occurred on Tuesday."

"This is a terrible tragedy and the hospital is deeply sorry for the loss suffered by the patient and her family," Australia's largest hospital specializing in women patients said in a statement.

"We are conducting a full investigation and continue to offer the family and affected staff every support," it added.

State Health Minister David Davis said that an independent expert would oversee the hospital's investigation, according to the British Broadcasting Corp.

"I am very much determined to get to the bottom of what went wrong," he told the BBC.

An unnamed friend of the mother told the newspaper that she was struggling to cope with the tragic error.

"She went to the hospital with two babies and now she has none," the friend said. "And she had the heartache of giving birth to her sick baby. She's traumatized," the friend added.

Health Services Commissioner Beth Wilson, the government watchdog for the health sector in Victoria state, said she had never heard of a mistake like it.

"It would have been complicated, however that doesn't mean the greatest care shouldn't still be taken," Wilson told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Lorraine Long, founder of Medical Error Action Group, an advocate for aggrieved patients, described the case as shocking.

"How they could get that so wrong after pinpointing what was wrong and then doing it incorrectly makes me speechless," Long told ABC.