More than 100 pregnant people experiencing severe complications have been denied care or negligently treated by hospitals in the last two years, according to a recent analysis of federal complaints by the Associated Press. Among them is Kyleigh Thurman, who filed a complaint last week asking the government to investigate whether staff at Ascension Seton Williamson in Round Rock, Texas, violated federal law last year when they allegedly delayed treatment of her ectopic pregnancy, leading it to rupture and to the removal of her fallopian tube. An Ascension spokesperson said in a statement, “While we cannot speak to the specifics of this case at this time, let us be clear that we deny the allegations.”
Cases like Thurman’s have become increasingly fraught since Dobbs. The Biden administration has said that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) applies to pregnant people who need emergency abortions, regardless of state law, but officials in Texas and Idaho have filed lawsuits arguing that this is not the case. In June, the Supreme Court declined to issue a ruling that would solve the issue. And while Texas’s abortion law explicitly makes an exception for ectopic pregnancies — which are always nonviable and life-threatening — these cases can be difficult to diagnose. Advocates say doctors may hesitate to act out of fear of running afoul of the state’s overlapping bans, which impose hefty penalties on providers.
I spoke with Thurman about the life-threatening experience that compromised her fertility, how she finally got hospital staff to intervene, and her recovery.
Can you take me back to the moment you realized you were pregnant?
I had no idea I was pregnant until around five weeks. I thought I was having an abnormal period. After several weeks, my partner said, “You really should check on that.” I called my OB to schedule an appointment and when the nurse called me back, she said, “Can you confirm you are not pregnant?” And I said, “Sure, I’m not pregnant.” But she said, “Can you take a test? We need to rule out a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy or more complicated issues.” The test was positive.
I was very shocked at first because I wasn’t expecting it, and then I was excited. We were both wanting to go that direction — if it happens, great, but also, we’re not trying. I also felt frightened. The nurse phrased it where this could be something serious. I called the OB back to tell them I was pregnant, but it was a Friday at three o’clock and my OB is an hour away. She said to go to the ER because she suspected, right then and there, that it was ectopic due to my symptoms. I was cramping, bleeding for weeks, and pretty dizzy. I went to my local ER that night and they confirmed that I was pregnant. But since it was my first time getting any blood work, it was like a baseline visit. We tried to get ultrasounds, but I was so early that nothing showed up. They asked me to come back two days later.
What were your conversations with hospital staff like? Did they suspect as well that you had an ectopic pregnancy?
Women are empowered to not tolerate abuse in relationships. Yet when it’s being done to you by a medical professional or even the government, you’re just supposed to roll over and take it.
I had to do a lot of my blood work at my local hospital, but any kind of specialized care had to be in Round Rock. The ERs didn’t know what to do with me. They were like, “Well, we can confirm you are pregnant. But we don’t see anything in your uterus, so we can’t confirm or deny an ectopic pregnancy.” I was ran in circles with that same protocol and left alone in the dark quite a bit. I don’t know if it was out of pure ignorance, like a lack of training, or if it was a fear of making a call. There was a lot of confusion and nothing was communicated clearly.
What sort of symptoms were you experiencing? What happened over the next couple of days?
The bleeding was getting worse. I was experiencing extreme dizziness, weakness, and morning sickness too. The cramping got worse, and I was just told to put a heating pad on it to take some Advil. I was reporting for blood work every two days to monitor my HCG levels; they were holding steady. I kept being discharged from the ERs with miscarriage paperwork: You’re experiencing a miscarriage. This is what it feels like. Here’s what you should do if your symptoms persist after this many days, come back.
After about a week of that, my OB instructed me to get methotrexate, because I had all the symptoms of an ectopic pregnancy. Since my local rural hospital doesn’t stock it and doesn’t have an OB on call, I was instructed to go to Round Rock. My OB informed me that she would not be on call there that night, but that she was going to call the OB who was and she instructed him that I had been under her care for weeks, that I was ectopic, and that I needed the methotrexate. She said, “All you gotta do is show up, he knows you’re coming.”
I got admitted that night and had more ultrasounds, more blood work. In that ultrasound, they were able to find an embryo in my right fallopian tube. My ER doctor came in and said, “We are able to see something on your right tube. I need to consult with the OB on call.” I thought, Great! My OB already handled this and he knows I’m here. I’m going to get my treatment. My partner and I waited, and the ER doctor came back in and said, “We do see something on your right fallopian tube, but we can’t confirm or deny the presence of an ectopic pregnancy. If you want to have surgery, we can do that.” And I was like, “I don’t want to have surgery. I want the methotrexate.” Then I got discharged as a miscarriage once again. The OB never even spoke to me.
What was the reasoning the hospital gave you for not giving you methotrexate as soon as it was clear it was ectopic?
I never got an answer to this day. I’d love to know why my life was gambled with.
What happened after you were turned away that night? What were you experiencing?
My partner and I were stunned. They didn’t really answer any of our questions. I got discharged with the miscarriage paperwork — that was it. I called my OB the next morning and spoke with the nurse. She said, “So did you get the methotrexate?” When I said no, she was livid.
They said, “You’ve got to get back in.” And I just told ’em, “I can’t.” The drive to Round Rock is like an hour. I work for myself and I’ve already taken off so much work, I can’t miss more. She was like, “At the very least, we need to be monitoring your blood every day now.” Two days later, she was like, “This is dangerous. You’ve got to get back into the ER.” It was the first time I really started to understand that, Oh my God, I could die. I took off work because the nurse said to come during the middle of the day and to call if I ran into problems so that one of them could come over to the ER — I’d been going at night after work, when I had no advocacy.
It was the same scenario: ultrasounds, blood work, HCG levels that hadn’t moved at all. Clear ectopic, you see it in my ultrasounds. I told the ER doctor, “I’m here for the methotrexate. I was instructed by my OB to get it, and I’m not leaving without it.” But they were getting ready to send me home again as a miscarriage. I came undone, like, I’m not leaving this room. I’m not leaving without it. I called my OB office again and said, “You better come send somebody, because I am about to get kicked out of here.”
They sent over an OB within minutes. The ER doctor came in, and the OB started to have a conversation that got pretty tense. They ended up taking the conversation into the hallway and closed the curtain. My ER doctor came back in and said, “I need you to have a discussion with your OB to make sure you’re fully aware of the consequences, the pros and the cons of methotrexate and of surgery.” That’s all I wanted this whole time! I made the decision for the methotrexate for the sole purpose that I want to have children in the future. I wanted to keep my right fallopian tube, where the embryo was. I received the methotrexate that day.
How did it make you feel that all your symptoms, on their own, were not enough for the hospital to act, and yet they listened to another doctor when they intervened in person?
Violated. Horrible. I was demeaned, dismissed, not even given any real pain mitigation — just go put a heating pad on it while my fallopian tube was rupturing. Not to mention the disorientation, because your body’s telling you something that seems incredibly urgent, my OB is telling me that my life is in danger. Yet, every time I go in for help, I am sent home and dismissed.
I’m so sorry that happened to you. Medical gaslighting is very real.
That’s exactly what it was. The ironic thing about the whole experience is that women are empowered to not tolerate abuse in relationships. Yet when it’s being done to you by a medical professional or even the government, you’re just supposed to roll over and take it. Or be conditioned into thinking that it’s normal to be completely abused by a system that didn’t care enough about my life to be bothered with giving me medication in a preventative fashion.
What happened after you got the methotrexate?
I got the injection and I still had to go in for blood work, because we had to make sure my HCG level numbers were dropping. If they weren’t, then I was going to have to do surgery. The medication started working within hours. My HCG levels by the next morning had dropped by a dramatic number. So I thought, Oh God, we got it. It’s working.
I didn’t want to lose the pregnancy, but at the same time, I knew that I had to lose this pregnancy for the sake of my life. Psychologically, that was pretty difficult. A week to the day that I received the methotrexate, I felt like I had just been stabbed in my right side. It was terrible pain for one, but also just the rapid loss of blood. I nearly lost consciousness. I was in a location that I thought, Man, if I pass out, I’m not sure anyone’s going to find me or get here. I just was like, Don’t die. Stay conscious. I called my mom and was like, “I am sure that I ruptured. I’m in extreme pain. I can’t sit up.” She said, “Go to the ER now. I’ll stay on the phone with you to make sure you don’t pass out while you’re driving.”
I knew the local ER couldn’t do anything surgery wise. They transferred me to the main hospital where I’d been dealing with all this. Once I was there, I had to get more blood work and more ultrasounds. My lower abdomen felt like a water bed, it was so full of blood. My OB happened to be on call. She told me, “You need surgery. You need to have the tube removed, and we need to cauterize to stop the bleeding.” I was in such shock that I couldn’t come to terms with it. So I told her, I can’t make this decision right now. I need you to give me some time.
After several hours of observation, she said, “Here’s the deal. You need a blood transfusion. You’re getting dangerously close to losing your life. You need to have surgery, and I’m leaving in a few hours.” The OB who denied me the methotrexate was coming on call. That did it for me. I said, “Take me back now. I don’t want that man touching my body. The reason I’m here is him.”
During surgery, they took your right fallopian tube out. How was the recovery process for you? Not only physically, but also emotionally?
I’m still recovering. The work I’ve had to do with pelvic-floor physiotherapy has been extensive. That has effects in my whole body, the way I carry myself and in the way my lower back works. Physiotherapy and rehabilitation for that has been helpful. Mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, the experience was so incredibly disempowering. I lost a piece of me, and I feel like a piece of me died with my child, to be honest. But I’m still here.
We can only speculate about the reason why you were denied the care you needed and deserved. But all of this is happening with the state’s abortion ban in the backdrop. How aware were you of the laws before this experience? Did you ever think it would impact you?
I had no idea about any of it. I never, ever thought that I was going to get somehow stuck in the crosshairs because I was a textbook exception. I’ve never had a reason in the past where I’ve not received health care, so it didn’t make any sense to me why now, all of a sudden, because I’m pregnant, I can’t receive help.
Walk me through your decision to file this complaint and what you’re hoping to achieve with it.
You never think it’s going to happen to you. I’m missing an organ, and I have scars on my abdomen to remind me every single day. Every pregnancy is unique, and there are an infinite amount of reasons why a woman would need or want an abortion. It’s between her and her doctor.
I am writing the ending that I want for myself. I had no resolution, I was just sent home to grieve. I do want to have kids, and I do still have one tube. But if this, God forbid, happens to me again, I don’t want to fight this fight twice. And I never want anyone in Texas to have to go through this.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
The Cut offers an online tool you can use to search by Zip Code for professional providers, including clinics, hospitals, and independent OB/GYNs, as well as for abortion funds, transportation options, and information for remote resources like receiving the abortion pill by mail. For legal guidance, contact Repro Legal Helpline at 844-868-2812 or the Abortion Defense Network.
