Kimberly Turbin wasn’t expecting childbirth to be a pleasant experience, but she wasn’t expecting it to be a nightmare either.
On 4 May 2013, she was sitting on the couch at a friend’s house. They had plans to go out for seafood in San Pedro, next to the Los Angeles Harbor, and 27-year-old Turbin was relaxing in the living room while her friend took a shower. Then she felt something “pop” – her water had broken. Turbin rushed home to take a shower herself and grab her things before heading to the hospital. She arrived at the Providence Tarzana Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley around 5pm.
Turbin was insured through Medi-Cal, a state programme that offers free or low-cost health coverage for people with limited income. She had received prenatal care through a nonprofit community health centre called El Proyecto del Barrio, where nurses handled most of her appointments. The day before she went into labour, two weeks before her due date, she had first met Alex Abbassi, an obstetrician who worked with Providence Tarzana.
Turbin is a two-time rape survivor, and when she arrived at the hospital, she asked the staff to be gentle and get permission before touching her. “I was scared of everything and everybody and I told them, ‘You have to tell me what you are doing or you are going to freak me out,’” she says.
Abbassi checked on Turbin’s progress over the course of the evening, and shortly after midnight, it looked like she was ready to deliver. She was on her back in the hospital bed, immobilised by an epidural and pushing, when Abbassi said, “I am going to do an episiotomy now.”
Turbin objected: “What? Why? We haven’t even tried!” More than once, she said, “No, don’t cut me.” Surgical scissors in hand, Abbassi explained that the baby’s head was too big and that her “butthole” might “rip” otherwise. Turbin implored him, once again, not to cut her. He said, “I am the expert here… Why can’t I do it? You can go home and do it. You go to Kentucky.” Then, despite her refusals, he cut her perineum 12 times.
The entire episode was caught on video by her mother, standing off to the side in the hospital room.
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