Turns out yesterday’s Douchebag of the Year contestant has a competitor. Already.
Courthouse News reports that nurse practitioner (or physician assistant, her labels vary) Sylvia Olona pulled out a woman’s IUD when she had just gone in to have the strings shortened. She then proceeded to lecture the woman about an IUD being an abortifacient (debunked here), refused to insert another IUD, and suggested hormonal contraception as an alternative.
“As Defendant Olona began the procedure, (the plaintiff) felt Olona pull on the strings of the IUD. (The plaintiff) felt a distinct pulling on the strings followed by a sharp pain in her uterus similar to a very strong menstrual cramp.
“As that happened, Defendant Olona stated, ‘Uh oh, I accidentally pulled out your IUD. I gently tugged and out it came.’ She then explained, ‘I cut the string than went back and gently pulled and out it came. It must have not been in properly.’
And that’s not all. Apparently Olona does this routinely at the Presbyterian Health Services Rio Rancho Family Health Center.
“Defendant Olona stated, ‘Everyone in the office always laughs and tells me I pull these out on purpose because I am against them, but it’s not true, they accidentally come out when I tug.’
OMG hilarious assault and battery! Everybody laugh at the misogyny! Somebody make that PA a coffee! What a fabulous health clinic. What a dedicated practitioner.
Why is this woman only the subject of a civil suit instead of being arrested?
Will this sort of shit happen more and more if Obama doesn’t immediately reverse the new HHS regs forcing healthcare facilities to hire “conscientious” objectors (we really need another name for those), regardless of the casemix?
More at RH Reality Check.
Categories: ethics & philosophy, gender & feminism, health, medicine, violence
Hoyden About Town 
I saw this earlier today, and have come back to re-read several times, because I can’t seem to get my head around it.
Other people in the clinic think that it is funny??
Olona thinks its okay? She hasn’t been fired?
What on earth??
So. Don’t. Tug.
With the pricey nature of privatised medicine in the USA, I really hope she has to pay for the resulting second doctors consultation and re-installation of a replacement IUD. That’ll stop it.
Deus Ex Macintosh’s last blog post..Down-and-out and trillionaires in Zimbabwe
I hope she has to pay a lot more than that.
From the sounds of this story it was premeditated battery, complete with lying and boasting about it. IUD insertion is a non-trivial procedure with a risk of pelvic infection and of uterine perforation. For some women it requires a general anaesthetic. So even before you get to the judgemental-arseholery and how-will-this-woman-trust-healthcare-staff-again side of things (which warrants a metric buttload of punitive damages), there’s the whole bit about endangering this woman’s life.
Then there’s the little technical detail about how, if the story as written about the traps is true, she went back after trimming the strings (ie after completing the procedure requested and consented for) in order to “tug” on them. Insertion of instruments into a woman’s vagina without her consent (including under false pretences) is rape.
Just forking out a few hundred for another doctor visit? Uh, no. I’d call this a felony. Or several of them.
What? No? On what planet does this… Ethics??
I hope Douchebag of the Year doesn’t become a regular feature.
Chally’s last blog post..You gotta hear left, your music solids bowls the sound
Absolutely!
See, I told you there was no need to worry about an arsehole /douchebag shortage for 2009. It appears they’re getting worse, even. ;-/
Helen, I can’t imagine what Lauredhel might find next…
Maybe HAT should make it Douchebag of the Month and then do an annual round up of worst of the worst just before Christmas. We could vote and everything.
Deus Ex Macintosh’s last blog post..Water Wings take on a whole new meaning
I can’t believe this! I’m so angry. And her smugness is infuriating!
OMFG. What the hell?
“Oh, I just tug on them and they come out! Tee hee!” So this horrible woman is alleging that what – there’s a rash of women in her area with poorly inserted IUDs? Un-fucking-believable.
It’s a freaking crime that this woman still has a job.
My IUD cost $850, two doctor’s visits ($70 in copay, and this is back when I HAD insurance), critically intense pain because I wasn’t on my period when I was in town to see my gyno and I’ve never had a kid, and 3 months of intense cramps and having my period about 25 days/month for a long time.
If someone dared pull it out of me for any reason when I did not explicitly ask them to, you can damned well bet that the ranking official at that Center, the cops, and the medical licensing board would not hear the end of it until that person was fired, stripped of their license, fined to hell and back, made to pay for my new one, and then made to sit in a room reading “Our Body Our Selves” for a year.
And completely by coincidence they all come to her, and their IUD’s fall out on their own, with no connection at all to her dislike of them. No.
More, now, at Feministe, Tiger Beatdown (who has an amusing take), and Feministing.
“My IUD cost $850, two doctor’s visits ($70 in copay, and this is back when I HAD insurance), critically intense pain because I wasn’t on my period when I was in town to see my gyno and I’ve never had a kid, and 3 months of intense cramps and having my period about 25 days/month for a long time.”
Sorry, I’m not sure how to directly reply to certain comments on here or even how to do quotes properly. BUT, I just wanted to ask: WHY did you endure all that torture for so long? I hope you don’t think I am being rude and I realize this is OT but I am just wondering why women put their bodies through so much torture to avoid pregnancy. Surely there are other, less painful methods of birth control that would work better for you? Its always bothered me that women are the ones enduring such discomfort (and possibly massive consequences to their overall health) to prevent pregnancy when men get off so easily.
About the story: That woman should be sacked, fined and banned from working in the area of women’s health.
Morgaine, not all those simpler methods work for every woman. It would be nice if they did, but either because of hyper-fertility or various sensitivities/allergies, they often don’t. I know a woman who’s fallen pregnant three times despite using contraception of different types in each case. After four children she’s decided to just live celibate, or at least without PIV sex.
I don’t know what Esme’s circumstances are, but she shouldn’t need to explain them to us unless she’s comfortable doing so.
No, she shouldn’t need to. But I can ask in case she wouldn’t mind answering. Its not like I am going to be offended if she doesn’t answer nor will I abuse her for it. I didn’t mean to be rude or imply that she *needed* to explain herself. All I was trying to get across is that I find it unfair that women have to go through such hell with birth control when a man barely has to do a thing. That and I have difficulty understanding why people persist for so long with methods that have such awful side effects for them and am genuinely curious as to why they *do* persist. I’ve been through The Pill merry go round myself and have vowed never to touch another hormonal birth control method again. However, I know of people who have persisted with various birth control methods despite the horrible side effects that they suffer without even considering that it may not be worth the hell.
Anyway, I know this is OT so I don’t want to make it *too* much of a tangent. I just wanted to stress that I was not in any way expecting an answer, did not feel I was entitled to one (but thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask), and did not mean to be rude or offensive in any way.
While I would never advocate harassing a clinic (because that’s what douchebags do in their spare time), perhaps it would be the time to start a letter-writing campaign. While I wouldn’t publish the number or address of this clinic online, the Rio Rancho Family Health Center is fairly easy to locate via google.
Oh, and also? It’s a private facility, which means that they are in absolutely no danger of losing government funding for firing an incompetent fundie who has laughingly committed rape several times.