OTTAWA, February 13, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) — A small-town Ontario gynaecologist who mixed delivering babies with killing them in the womb has surrendered his medical licence after the College of Physicians and Surgeons examined 28 botched cases and found him “incompetent in his practice of obstetrics and gynecology.”
In the topsy-turvy world of medical ethics, one of the things Dr. Michael Prevost of Almonte, Ontario, did wrong was let two babies he tried to terminate in the womb survive—but with birth defects. Anecdotal testimonies found on a rate-your-doctor website agree he was personally charming but rough-handed in the delivery room.
All his abortions, however, were pharmaceutical, using methotrexate. Reported the College: “He displayed a lack of judgment and patients were exposed to harm or injury in his failure to properly screen patients for medical terminations, in his failure to calculate doses of methotrexate on the basis of his patients' respective body surface areas, and in his failure to follow up with patients, including when he was aware that patients had ongoing gestations after the administration of methotrexate.”
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Methotrexate is used to induce abortions and treat cancer. The website webmd.com, under the heading of women’s health, lists the drug’s side effects when used in abortion as nausea and vomiting. Interestingly, other websites focusing on side effects alone take a more alarmist view of methotrexate’s unintended consequences, which include severe azotemia (too much nitrogen-based substances in the blood), severe blood infection, stomach and intestinal bleeding, and perforation. When used in abortion, a second drug is then taken to induce labor and expel the dead baby.
MedicineNet.com warns: “Methotrexate has infrequently caused serious (sometimes fatal) side effects. Therefore, this medication should be used only to treat cancer or severe diseases caused by an overactive immune system (such as psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis).”
Given such side effects, following up after medical abortions is understandably important and the College faulted Prevost not only for failing to follow up, but for failing to do full examinations beforehand. The College made it clear to Prevost, who has not practised since 2013, that his licence would have been revoked permanently had he not resigned. Reportedly he was one of only two doctors in the Ottawa area who did “medical” or pharmaceutical abortions.
Declared the College: “Your lack of responsibility and professionalism are inconsistent with medical practice and nothing short of separating you from the profession would allow this panel to discharge its duties.”
The ratemds.com website gives him three and a half stars based on a half dozen comments from patients. These range from one woman who after 10 years in his care wouldn’t go anywhere else, to another who says he used “barbaric force” in delivering her baby in 2003 and complains: “Because of the doctors Negligent foresight [sic] and judgement I have suffered greatly… This is a very miss informed [sic] doctor with bad judgement that hides his incompetence with a pretty smile.” Two themes running through the comments are that he was both charming and, in surgery, heavy-handed.