An East Bank Demerara woman has sued the government and a Cuban doctor, now attached to the Leonora Diagnostic Centre, for performing a hysterectomy on her without her consent and she is claiming in excess of $38 million for special damages.

Tricia Azaire, through her attorney Sanjeev Datadin, filed the lawsuit in the High Court late last month citing negligence on the part of the defendants. The Attorney General and Dr Marcia Del Carmen Alvarez were named as the defendants in the case.

In her statement of claim, Azaire said the doctor failed to perform the appropriate surgery on her and that her uterus was removed without her consent.

She said the doctor had advised her that surgery would be done to remove a cyst on her left ovary, but another surgery was performed and she left the hospital with the same problem she went in with.

Azaire said she was owed a duty of care in relation to her surgery and treatment, including matters arising from it or incidental to it. She contended in the court file that the doctor and the East Bank Demerara Regional Hospital (Diamond Diagnos-tic Centre) compromised her care and failed to provide a safe system for the provision of healthcare.

She said the care provided to her failed to include a proper and comprehensive diagnosis of her problem and also performance of surgical procedures consistent with the diagnosis and recommended surgery. She said too that they failed to provide her with adequate and informed advice on her medical condition.

She said the doctor named in the suit was purportedly a specialist in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology. According to court documents, Azaire started to experience lower back pains which were sometimes intense, usually accompanied by a fever and vaginal discharge back in January 2008. After seeing a gynaecologist at the hospital and being advised to have an ultrasound she was diagnosed with a possible lesion within the left ovary.

She was prescribed antibiotics and painkillers which worked for about a year; at the time she was advised that surgery was likely in the future, the court papers said.

In January 2009, Azaire’s symptoms returned and were more frequent and severe. She had a second ultrasound which revealed a cyst in the left ovary.

Court documents said that a radiologist found the result consistent with a chronic left ovarian hemorrhagic cyst or chocolate cyst.  Further tests were carried out and a third ultrasound was done as requested by the doctor to compare and confirm results.

The doctor, according to the claim, diagnosed Azaire’s condition as an ovarian chocolate cyst which required surgery because of the danger of it rupturing if left untreated. Azaire was told that the doctor had 15 years experience in performing such surgical procedures and that it was a very simple procedure which would last no more than 20 to 40 minutes.

On April 10, 2009, the surgery was performed by the doctor and a medical team, but it lasted for close to three hours.

It was only after the surgery that Azaire was informed that a hysterectomy was performed on her because of “problems” with her uterus.

The woman said she later obtained a histopathology report dated April 27, 2009, which indicated that a uterus and cervix which were removed from her were examined and showed “nothing remarkable”. She had another ultrasound and the radiologist reported that while a hysterectomy was performed her cervix was located. Additionally, it showed the existence of an ovarian cyst toward the right of the urinary bladder.

The court documents pointed out that the doctor had issued medical certificates in accordance with National Insurance and Social Security Acts which indicate that Azaire was suffering on April 9, 2009 from left ovarian cyst and on May 14, 2009 from a left adnexectomy (surgery). Azaire contended that what happened to her was the result of negligence.

Since the surgical procedure, the woman said, she has had great difficulty walking in addition to feeling extreme pain in her body.

She said the removal of her uterus has rendered her incapable of having children in the future.

Azaire insisted in the claim that the doctor failed to perform the correct surgery and that her uterus was removed when there was no reason for that to have been done in the circumstances.

In her claim she has cited the loss of the ability to have any children.

Additionally, she cited the cost of care which her mother and sister had provided to her on account of her injuries.