Woman Sues Over Genetic Test

APO 30.09.98 06:22


Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of the Associated Press.
By JUDIE GLAVE
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- A woman who said she aborted a 4-month-old fetus after an erroneous lab test showed it was abnormal is suing a New York City hospital and the company that processed her amniocentesis test.
The test taken from Janet Sheikhan in 1996 reportedly showed she was carrying a female fetus with Edwards syndrome, a disease that causes mental retardation, disfiguration and sometimes early death.
Sheikhan had an abortion after learning the results of the test, which was taken at Lenox Hill Hospital and processed by Genetrix, a genetic testing firm based in Yonkers.
Officials at Lenox Hill Hospital said Tuesday that the original diagnosis was right and that a pathology report the mother read a year after the abortion was wrong.
Ms. Sheikhan, 42, was preparing for the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur and would have no comment until Thursday, her attorney's office said.
Ms. Sheikhan told the Daily News in a story published Tuesday that although the test said her fetus was a girl, it looked like a boy and she dismissed the thought at the time.
A year after her abortion, pregnant again, Ms. Sheikhan was sitting in her obstetrician's office when she found the pathology report on her aborted fetus.
"I saw `Normal,' `Normal,' `Normal,' `Male.' My head just started spinning, and I didn't know what to say," she said.
Ms. Sheikhan has filed a malpractice lawsuit for unspecified damages in Manhattan federal court against the hospital, Genetrix and its parent company, Genzyme.
Ms. Sheikhan contends her amniotic fluid was mislabeled or the report was switched.
Lenox Hill Hospital officials said in a faxed statement that the pathology report was wrong and they were "confidant that the original amniocentesis diagnosis of a female fetus with Edwards syndrome was correct."
It was unclear who performed the pathology report and when the hospital asked an independent perinatal pathologist to reexamine the fetus. A hospital spokeswoman did not return several phone calls Tuesday.
Stirling M. Puck, the medical director at Genzyme Genetics, said: "We have conducted our internal investigation on this case and believe that the diagnosis originally made was correct. We have an accuracy rate of over 99 percent. "

Overview