Health & Medicine

Marianne Keith, 52, Sues a Chicago-based Hospital for Ultrasound 'Rape'

Nupur Jha
First Posted: Sep 12, 2013 08:52 AM EDT

Marianne Keith, a 52-year-old woman has sued Advocate Condell Medical Center located in Libertyville, Chicago, for medical battery. She claims she was brutally probed in a vaginal ultrasound, which led to internal injuries and emotional trauma.  

Keith was experiencing abdominal pains and was advised by a physician to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound. She said that the one hour check-up turned into an inhuman physical abuse by the hospital technician who stuffed the probe in to various internal portions of her vagina, including her cervix repeatedly.

"It felt like I was being raped," she told The Huffington Post in an interview. "Like somebody was intentionally hurting me."

This procedure is often used for checkups during early pregnancy and Keith is now facing continuous  post-traumatic stress.

"After I left the hospital, I knew by how much pain I was in that something was done to me," Keith said.

She says she revisits her trauma whenever she watches rape scenes on television. This incident reportedly took place in February earlier this year and has impacted her so severely that she still feels scared to visit hospitals. Keith decided to take legal action against the service provider and filed a lawsuit against them.

This procedure of transvaginal ultrasound utilizes ultrasonography to picture the pelvic organs. This technique aids in sensing the fetal heartbeat during the initial stages of pregnancy. This procedure is also used for diagnostic purposes, as it can spot irregularities in the area.

"Even if it's done the way that it should be done, it's so intrusive," she said.

Keith emphasized that she has she been through the process of ultrasound many times in her life, during fertility treatments but she found this particular incident very abusive. The Advocate Condell Medical Center has not responded to the lawsuit.

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