Subject: British Mom Compensated When Twin Survives Abortion
Source: BBC; November 22, 2001

British Mom Compensated When Twin Survives Abortion

London, England -- A Midlands, England mother who had an incomplete
abortion and gave birth to a surviving twin has received a five figure sum
in compensation.

However, Kim Nicholls, from Staffordshire, says she does not know how she
is going to explain to her surviving daughter that she might have had a
brother or sister.

She was advised to have an abortion on medical grounds in 1999 after
suffering serious health problems during the Caesarean births of her
previous three children. The 36-year-old reluctantly went ahead with the
abortion in March 1999 but three months later she felt a baby kicking
inside her, and went on to give birth to a healthy baby girl, Darcy, now
aged two.

The doctor who treated her privately, Dr. Sen Gupta, has agreed to pay her
the five-figure sum after she sued him for criminal negligence.

But, Mrs. Nicholls says the compensation is not enough. She told BBC Radio
WM: "I am not coping at all. I feel angry, as though the decision was
taken away from me."

Nicholls was advised to have the abortion after experiencing fluid on the
brain following the birth of her third child Kiefer, now aged nine. At
first she was reluctant but decided to go ahead so that her health would
not be at risk. Nicholls said that after the abortion, which was carried
out privately, Gupta told her that a baby had been taken away.

She was surprised three months later when she felt a baby kicking inside
her.

"I just thought I was imagining it. Because I didn't want to have the
abortion in the first place, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me.
When I found out I was still pregnant I was hysterical to be honest. But
all the maternal instincts came back again."

However she now has to tell her daughter when she's older that she may
have had a twin brother or sister.

Nicholls said: "I didn't know for definite before the termination that I
was expecting twins and it was Dr Gupta who put the idea into or
possibility of a twin into everyone's mind.

"I personally think that Darcy was a twin, but until I get it clear in my
mind, which I don't know if I ever will, I don't know how I am going to
tell her."

Nicholls' solicitor Louise Hunt, head of clinical negligence at Russell
Walker & Jones in Birmingham, said: "Any case of medical negligence is bad
for the people involved but in this particular case, Kim has to live with
the possibility that there may have been a twin.

"That is a very difficult thing to live with."

You can see a picture of Darcy by pointing your web browser to:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1670000/images/_1670127_darcy150.jpg