Damages for bad birth control advice

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- A Dutch hospital was ordered to share the cost of raising twins born to a woman who had been told she could no longer become pregnant.

An appeals court granted damages of more than $500,000 to the mother, to be paid by the IJsselland Hospital in Capelle aan den Ijssel, Expatica reported.

While hospitals have been found liable in cases in which women became pregnant after undergoing sterilization, this is the first case, at least in The Netherlands, where a woman would receive damages after getting bad family-planning advice.

The woman, who already had three children, was told in the early 1990s by a gynecologist at the hospital that she could no longer conceive. A short while later, she became pregnant with twins who are now 13.

The hospital has denied that the woman and her husband were given misinformation.