Conn. doctor fined after removing pregnant woman's uterus

A gynecologist at a Waterbury, Conn., hospital has been fined $5,000 after removing the uterus of a pregnant woman who said she wasn’t pregnant.

The state’s Medical Examining Board ruled Dr. Jonathan Foster failed to notice the patient was pregnant before performing the laparoscopic hysterectomy in 2011 at St. Mary’s Hospital.

Instead of conducting a preoperative urine, blood test or ultrasound, the board says Foster “relied on the patient’s belief that she was not pregnant.”


His attorney, Madonna Sacco, defended Foster’s actions because he performed the surgery under the presumption the patient was not pregnant.

“We're not blaming her. This was a woman who wanted to move forward with the procedure,” Sacco told the Hartford Courant.

He will keep his medical license after agreeing to not contest the board’s findings in July.

The patient had two urine tests leading up to the surgery, but each one of those tests resulted in negative results.