MMSA’s Official Statement Regarding the Case of Ms Andrea Prudente It has been reported yesterday that a 16-week pregnant woman, Ms Andrea Prudente, experienced heavy bleeding and breaking water due to a premature rupture of membrane and a detaching placenta, where she was promptly transferred to Mater Dei Hospital. The situation could potentially devolve and have serious repercussions on the woman’s health, most importantly risking an intrauterine infection or generalised sepsis. During discussions with the medical team, the patient had reportedly requested an evacuation of the uterus, in line with international guidelines for such a case that involves a non-viable foetus at her stage of pregnancy. Her request, however, has been denied due to local laws, as the foetus still has a heartbeat. She has been reportedly told that she would only be given a uterine evacuation in the case of imminent death. Therefore, she was being forced to “wait and see” how her situation would develop. Fortunately, however, she was given the opportunity to be evacuated to a foreign hospital where more immediate treatment will be given to her. As future medical practitioners, we, the members of the Malta Medical Students’ Association, are saddened by this news, and we would like to extend our sympathies to Ms Prudente, for not only having to deal with the terrible potential loss of a pregnancy, which is a traumatic experience on its own, but for also having to deal with the distress and trauma caused by being denied optimal medical care, the constant monitoring of a foetus’ heartbeat who she is told has “no chance of survival”, and having to risk her life unnecessarily in order to receive proper health care. Throughout our medical training, prioritising patient safety is given a lot of importance, and avoiding unnecessary suffering is lauded as a constant pillar in our practice, and so we ask the question: How is the care that she was receiving locally ensuring her survival, dignity, and quality of life? The patient was being put at an unnecessary risk as her personal safety was being disregarded. Not due to carelessness by the medical team, but because of the constraints imposed upon them by law in this situation. As future professionals we are taught to understand the sacred value of human life, but we are also explicitly made to understand that prolonging life is not the only aim of healthcare, as it is also to preserve the quality of life as best as we can. This case is frighteningly similar to what occurred to Ms Savita Halappanavar in Ireland in 2012, with medical professionals unable to carry out a life-saving procedure due to strict legislation, leading to the patient developing sepsis and ultimately passing away. While we are happy that the couple was given a chance to receive treatment somewhere else, the issue still remains that current local practices still put patients in a similar situation in danger. We should not need to go through the same regrettable loss locally in order to learn those same lessons, and we should not have to send patients abroad to receive care that could easily be provided locally.
The Malta Medical Students’ Association has and will remain neutral regarding abortion, however, we stand against any clear disregards to patient safety, and we ask that local directives about the matter be revised to fully allow medical professionals to provide optimal care for their patients, and not prolong patients’ suffering.
References: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26831896/