Aggravated criminal sexual assult...??

[Steff]

http://www.rrstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl...WS0105/50721005

 

Severely disabled woman gives birth early in Chicago

 

 

 

 

CHICAGO -- A severely disabled woman who became pregnant in a suburban Chicago long-term care facility delivered a daughter a month early Wednesday after complications brought on premature labor.

 

 

The lawyer in a civil suit against the facility said Thursday the birth was "touch and go" for the infant and mother and emotionally trying for his client, grandmother Cheryl Hale-Crom of Machesney Park.

 

 

Chicago attorney Ed Fox said Amy Jo Hale, 23, developed pre-eclampsia, a serious condition that results in high blood pressure in pregnant women. Hale, who was scheduled for Caesarean section in mid-August, instead was taken at 5 a.m. Wednesday to Rush University Medical Center in Chicago where she began having contractions by mid-morning, Fox said.

 

 

 

Doctors delayed surgery for several hours, he said, until they could stop Hale's seizures. Hale's seizure disorder left her brain damaged as an infant, and she has resided in nursing homes since she was 3.

 

 

Hale cannot walk or talk. She wears diapers and eats through a feeding tube. The lawsuit Fox filed on behalf of Hale and her mother alleges that Alden Village Health Facility in Bloomingdale, where Hale lived until June, concealed her pregnancy for months and failed to provide Hale with prenatal care.

 

Fox said Hale and the baby remained Thursday in intensive care, but show no immediate signs of long-term health problems. Medical tests on both would be conducted over the next few days, Fox said.

 

Hale's daughter, Alexis Jo, was born shortly after 8 p.m. and weighed 5 pounds, 3 ounces. Fox said he was with Hale-Crom when the delivery occurred, as were Hale-Crom's sister, niece and mother.

 

Fox described Hale-Crom as "traumatized" and "really stressed out."

 

"She was relieved when her daughter came through the surgery. She was concerned about her daughter making it through alive."

 

The lawsuit contends Alden's failure to notify Hale-Crom of the pregnancy prevented her from having the pregnancy aborted. She told the Rockford Register Star that she'd raise the baby so long as the baby is healthy. She could not be reached Thursday.

 

Bloomingdale police are investigating the case as an aggravated criminal sexual assault.