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Post doctors named in federal suit
Woman files malpractice suit involving WACH
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A Washington woman has filed a malpractice suit in federal court for the pain and suffering she said she and her daughter endured after medical officials at Fort Stewart’s Winn Army Community Hospital conducted two abortion procedures, leaving her unknowingly pregnant.  
The case of Aimee White v. the United States of America was filed in the Washington Western District Court of Tacoma, Wash., on May 6 by the law offices of Archuleta, Alsaffar and Higginbotham.
The Texas law team specializes in severe injury and military malpractice cases.
According to reports coming out of Washington, the lawsuit claims that in December 2006, while White’s husband was stationed at Fort Stewart, she found out she was pregnant.
Her attorney, Laurie Higginbotham, said White began having difficulties with the pregnancy a short time later, prompting her to visit doctors at Winn.
 “ … She went in for some bleeding or spotting that can be common. The providers tested her HcG levels again and decided, based on one lab test alone, that she must have had a miscarriage,” Higginbotham told Seattle’s King 5 news.
With no other test performed, Higginbotham said, the Army doctors at Fort Stewart said the fetus needed to be removed and prescribed White an abortion-inducing drug. Because she had no heavy discharge after taking the medication, doctors performed a dilation and curettage procedure to remove evidence of the pregnancy from White’s body.
A short time later, after her husband deployed to Iraq, White moved her family to the Fort Lewis area.
It was there, at Madigan Army Medical Center, Higginbotham said, that she found she was still pregnant.
“She had no idea that these procedures did not work,” Higginbotham told King 5 news in Seattle. “She had no idea that all along this had been a growing pregnancy.”
Seven months later, Higginbotham said White delivered her child by cesarean section, but the baby had already suffered severe lung damage and brain injury from being in the womb without adequate amounts of amniotic fluid.
The Courier tried to contact White through her attorney but was unable to do so. 
Officials on Fort Stewart said they were not prepared to comment.
U.S. Army officials released a short statement.
“Because the case is under litigation, it is inappropriate to offer any comment,” said Jaime Cavazos Sr., public affairs supervisor of MEDCOM Public Affairs.
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