- A woman has accused a Philadelphia IVF clinic doctor of injecting acid into her womb.
- "I felt burning,'" the woman, named Christine, told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
A woman from Philadelphia says she was left severely burnt after a fertility doctor accidentally injected acid instead of saline into her womb.
The woman named Christine told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the incident took happened on December 19, 2022, at the Main Line Fertility clinic. Christine, a Montessori preschool teacher, and her husband Jason, asked to be identified only by their first names for privacy reasons, per The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Christine said she was at the clinic's Havertown office for a saline infusion sonogram, a procedure to check if there were blockages in her fallopian tubes.
"I felt burning," Christine told the news outlet.
"I kept saying, 'Something is off. Something is wrong. Is it supposed to burn?'" the preschool teacher added.
Christine said the doctor, Allison Bloom, brushed aside her complaints and said it was just saline solution.
After the procedure, Christine noticed red welts spreading around her inner thighs and legs. An ultrasound technician then realized that Christine had been injected with trichloroacetic acid at an 85% concentration.
Trichloroacetic acid can be used in chemical peels to remove warts and to treat skin conditions like acne and brown spots.
Christine was later diagnosed with first and second-degree internal and external chemical burns, and treated at a local burn center, per The Philadelphia Inquirer. She told the media outlet that her reproductive organs have been badly scarred, and that it still hurts even when she sits down.
Mia Humphreys, a Main Line Fertility spokesperson, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Bloom "was not responsible for the acid being in the procedure room" and "was not involved in pre-filling the syringe." Humphreys added that trichloroacetic acid has been removed from all the clinic's offices.
The couple has filed a lawsuit against Main Line Fertility and is seeking monetary damages from the clinic.
"We intend to hold Dr. Bloom and other Main Line Fertility defendants accountable for the grossly irresponsible actions that led to this unthinkable scenario unfolding in the first place," Robert S. Miller, one of the lawyers representing the couple, told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Representatives for Main Line Fertility and the couple's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.