Catholic hospital apologizes for sending bleeding mom home with a bucket when she miscarried twins at 15 weeks

A Catholic California hospital has agreed to revisit training and education after the State sued the facility, alleging that its practitioners denied a woman an emergency abortion.

Anna Nusslock, 36, claimed doctors at the Catholic-affiliated Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka sent her home, bloodied, as she miscarried, offering her nothing other than a bucket and towel.

The expecting mother alleged that doctors responsible for her care denied an emergency abortion after her water prematurely broke, leaving her vulnerable to infection and other complications.

Nusslock was just 15 weeks pregnant with twins when doctors told her the babies would no longer be viable and if her pregnancies were not terminated she could risk hemorrhaging, or developing an infection that could negatively impact her future fertility.

But, because doctors reportedly detected fetal heartbeats, the Catholic hospital turned to their own policy – which states that the hospital could not perform an abortion unless the patient’s life was at risk. 

Catholic hospitals restrict reproductive health care because of their following of the church’s ‘Ethical and Religious Directives’.

Yet, according to the Cleveland Clinic, fetal tissue remaining in the uterus can cause ‘infection, which can damage your reproductive organs or even cause dangerous complications like sepsis when left untreated.’

Denied care, Nusslock and her husband then drove to Mad River Community Hospital, 12 miles away. On the unimaginable, blood-riddled ride, the now-grieving mother expelled one of the fetuses.

She arrived at the Arcata hospital in distress before medical professionals had to perform an emergency procedure to remove the other unborn fetus.

On September 30 the State of California filed a lawsuit against the Eureka hospital, alleging that it violated state law mandating hospitals with emergency centers to provide care to prevent ‘serious injury, illness and death.’

The suit alleges that ‘instead of providing the emergency medical care she needed, Providence Hospital offered her a bucket and towels.’

If that wasn’t enough, additional details were expunged in the September suit including that the Providence doctor advised Nusslock to be helicoptered to University of California, San Francisco Medical Center for treatment. 

But when she brought up the unfathomable $40,000 cost, the suit states her doctor told her: ‘If you try to drive, you will hemorrhage and die before you get to a place that can help you.’

The hospital has since responded to Nusslock’s traumatic experience issuing a statement in a Facebook post, signed by its Chief Executive, Garry Olney.

‘As you have likely heard, yesterday we learned that the California attorney general filed a lawsuit alleging that we denied emergency care to a pregnant patient in Humboldt County earlier this year,’ the post reads.

‘We are heartbroken over the experience this patient had while in our care and reached out to her today in an effort to express our profound apologies.’

The hospital Nusslock ultimately did receive potentially life-saving care at, Mad River, will soon close its labor and delivery department – leaving even fewer options for those who find themselves needing care.

Providence will then be the only hospital within an 85-mile radius to offer labor and delivery, according to a KFF Health News analysis. 

This case brings about a larger issue plaguing women as it illustrates a profound loophole in California’s state law that allows Catholic-affiliated hospitals to instead follow their religious directives.

In California, 56 hospitals have shuttered their maternity wards in the past 12 years, according to an investigation by CalMatters, The 19th News reported.

Meanwhile, nationwide, at least 267 hospitals closed labor and delivery units between 2011 and 2021, representing about 5 percent of the country’s hospitals, according to Chartis, a health analytics and consulting firm.