Last week, Florida resident Linda Gomez filed a lawsuit against Wellington Regional Medical Center for emotional trauma. She claims a hospital employee flushed the remains of her miscarried baby down the toilet.
According to Gomez’s attorney, Kennan Dandar, Gomez sought medical attention in July 2014, 19 weeks into her pregnancy and bleeding. While waiting for a doctor, Gomez miscarried in a bathroom. Unable to get the attention of the medical staff, she claims she had to cut the umbilical cord with her fingernails.
Dandar says a hospital employee eventually heard Gomez screaming, went into the bathroom with Gomez and flushed the toilet, all the while acting “calm, cool and collected,” as Gomez screamed “no, no, no, my baby.”
“She saw the face of her child. It is what she remembers in her nightmares,” he said.
Dandar claims the hospital refused to retrieve the body of the miscarried baby after Gomez requested it in order to give the baby a proper burial.
Gomez is seeking unspecified damages in court. Jay Cohen, attorney for Wellington Regional Medical Center, says the hospital intends to defend itself in court. “We are confident that the true facts of this situation will come out,” he said.