In October, the woman booked a same-day appointment at the Clearway Clinic in Worcester for an ultrasound because she thought she might be pregnant, according to her attorneys. Despite being given paperwork at the end of her visit indicating that she had been treated by a Dr. Erin Kate Dooley, the woman was instead allegedly seen by a nurse who was not licensed to diagnose viable pregnancies, according to the complaint.
Dooley could not be reached for comment.
The complaint alleges that, after conducting a limited number of ultrasounds, the nurse nevertheless diagnosed the pregnancy as viable and in utero, and sent the woman home believing she was carrying a completely healthy baby.
One month later, her attorneys said, the woman suddenly began to feel a sharp and shooting pain in her side. She became so faint that her husband had to call 911, and she was rushed to the emergency room at UMass Memorial Medical Center. There, doctors quickly diagnosed her with an ectopic pregnancy — in which a fetus grows outside the uterus — which had ruptured and caused “massive internal bleeding,” according to the complaint.