British mother reaches settlement with hospital that aborted healthy baby after misdiagnosis

A British mother who made the decision with her boyfriend to abort their healthy preborn daughter after receiving an incorrect fetal diagnosis has reached a settlement with the hospital that committed the abortion five years ago.

Kay Young was 20 weeks pregnant with her daughter, whom she had named Keira, when doctors at Blackpool Victoria Hospital told her that scans and testing showed Keira had potentially serious developmental complications, including shortened thigh bones and shortened upper arms. 

Young was referred to Saint Mary’s Hospital in Manchester, where she was told that Keira had a fatal form of dwarfism and was advised that she should abort Keira. Young decided to follow the advice to end her child’s life, even though she had some intuition that her daughter was healthy.

“I knew there was nothing wrong with Keira. As a mother, you just know. Her movements were strong, but I trusted the advice I was given,” Young said.

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Keira was killed by lethal injection at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Manchester on February 19, 2020. There is strong evidence that preborn babies who have reached the 20-week gestational mark, like Keira did, can feel pain. In fact, the most current research points out that babies likely have the capability to feel pain by the end of the first trimester.

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Young then had to carry her dead daughter for three days before delivering the stillborn infant.

“I had to continue with the pregnancy for three days knowing that we had killed her,” Young said.

Young said medical staff had assured her that she would not be able to see the hole in her dead baby’s chest caused by the lethal injection when the baby was born. They were wrong.

“When she was born, I could see a hole in her chest where the needle that killed her was inserted,” said Young.

A post-mortem confirmed that Keira had not had dwarfism, and Young and her boyfriend were sent into a state of extreme grief. 

“My partner and I could not cope when we found out that Keira did not have a lethal form of dwarfism following the hospital’s postmortem,” Young stated. The couple’s relationship ended sometime after the abortion.

Young has made a five-figure settlement with Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Saint Mary’s Hospital in Manchester, but the Trust denied liability. Part of the settlement included an agreement that the hospital should honor Keira on the fifth anniversary of her death. 

Sadly, inaccurate prenatal diagnoses are made often, and parents are sometimes persuaded by doctors to abort their babies, denying their children the chance to finish developing and the chance to live. Every child deserves life, regardless of diagnosis or ability.