Power morcellator usage is something that doctors once counted on to provide women with minimally invasive surgery to remove fibroids and perform hysterectomies. While this seems like it was a good idea, the decision to have this type of procedure done was actually a death sentence for some patients.
What doctors didn’t always know, or pretended not to know, was that the morcellator actually sent cancer cells flying around the woman’s abdominal cavity. Oftentimes, the woman didn’t even know that she had these dormant cancer cells in her body. Once the cells were flung around, they began to grow in different areas.
One woman, who happened to be a doctor, had the power morcellator procedure done. She was later diagnosed with cancer. Sadly, she recently died at the fairly young age of 44.
Dr. Amy Reed worked hard to fight for the women who had to walk the same road as she did because of the power morcellator. She, as well as her husband who is a prominent surgeon, were behind the 2014 decision by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue a warning that the power morcellator procedure wasn’t appropriate for the vast majority of cases.
For the women who had the procedure done, aggressive cancers including leiomyosarcoma of the uterus, are taking them away from their family members much too soon. These women are choosing to seek compensation for the damage done to them, even though doing so won’t help to prolong their days. If anything, a successful claim for compensation might help them to live out their final days in peace knowing that they might have provided some financial security to the people they left behind.
Source: The New York Times, “Amy Reed, Doctor Who Fought a Risky Medical Procedure, Dies at 44,” Denise Grady, May 24, 2017
