Bungling doctor must pay child support

The woman already had two children

By Kevin Buckley in Milan

A gynaecologist in Venice has been ordered to pay child maintenance to a patient who had an unwanted pregnancy following the failure of a sterilisation operation.

Dr Ruggero Pasqualetto must pay a total of 105,000 euros, around £70,000, to his patient.

He has been ordered to pay £8,000 in court costs, with the balance as compensation for psychological stress suffered and maintaining the child during his school years.

The patient, identified only as Signora A.S., a housewife married to a builder, already had two children when she gave birth to a baby boy on New Year's Eve, 1996, despite having undergone an operation on her fallopian tubes to prevent further pregnancies.

I find it incredible that a doctor has to answer for a physiological healing

Dr Ruggero Pasqualetto

Dr Pasqualetto had utilised a rare technique, injecting a kind of surgical "super-glue" under local anaesthetic, to close the fallopian tubes, a less invasive method than the traditional surgery.

He claimed he explained to Signora A.S. that there was a 15 in a 1,000 chance that the procedure wouldn't work, but the patient denied this to the court.

'Obligation'

Dr Pasqualetto said: "It's quite a rare technique here (in Italy) but is routine in the USA."

He added: "The operation went well, then after two years Mother Nature found otherwise, but I find it incredible that a doctor has to answer for a physiological healing."

Enrico Cornelio, the woman¿s lawyer said: "It wasn't Mother Nature's fault, but the fault of the wrong method.

"The contract signed with the doctor amounted to an obligation of the outcome, not of the method.

"It's not enough that the doctor did his best, the guarantee of results is necessary."

Signora A.S., now aged 45, argued that the third pregnancy prevented her from returning to work.

She said: "I don't hate the doctor. What struck me was his cynicism, because he took the liberty of changing the direction of my life in a way I didn't want."

She complained that Dr Pasqualetto never apologised for the failure of the operation.

When her pregnancy test proved positive, she says, "He just suggested an abortion; he said 'don't worry Signora, we'll get rid of it'. "