By Marcelle Thomas
The Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) has defended surgery done on a young woman who checked into the hospital with `labour’ pain but which was later discovered to be a false pregnancy and reportedly the first of its kind at the hospital.
The hospital issued a statement yesterday stating that 18-year-old Althea Lewis had endured a rare disorder called pseudocyesis or false pregnancy, in which women exhibit symptoms of pregnancy such as absence of monthly periods, morning sickness and weight gain among others, but are not pregnant. The hospital also alleged that because Lewis was not forthcoming to staff about her pregnancy history, a laparotomy, and not a caesarean section as Lewis claimed, was performed in an effort to prevent a potential life threatening situation. (A laparotomy is a surgery that opens the abdomen to treat certain health problems and conditions.)
In an interview with this newspaper, the 18-year-old said that she had noticed irregular menses beginning in
