Shanin Specter: Ill-equipped hospital halts procedures on pregnant women

Shanin Specter won important reforms at Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia in a case involving the death of a baby following a cervical cone biopsy performed on his mother despite the risk of necessitating an emergency delivery. The hospital was not equipped to handle such a delivery since it lacked an obstetrics department, adequate fetal monitoring devices and a neonatal unit. The result was that the baby suffered brain damage due to asphyxia and died seven months later. Specter won a large monetary settlement and also an agreement that the hospital would cease procedures on pregnant women.