AP Photo/Jeff Amy, File
- A hospital in Georgia cast doubt on whistleblower claims that mass hysterectomies were carried out on ICE detainees.
- Irwin County Hospital, which serves Irwin County Detention Center, said that only 2 two were carried out there since 2017.
- A representative told The Washington Post that there are no other plausible venues for hysterectomies in the county.
- This casts doubts on whistleblower claims that the procedures were performed on a large scale. Activists have said many of the procedures took place, but did not give a specific number.
- The doctor accused of carrying out the procedures has denied performing any hysterectomies without consent.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
A hospital accused of being the site where hysterectomies were performed on detained immigrants said that its records show only two such procedures happened there since 2017.
The claims cast doubt on accusations from activists that this was a widespread practice which was carried out sometimes without the women’s consent.
The comment from Georgia’s Irwin County Hospital came in a response to The Washington Post.
An attorney for the group which runs the hospital said that it had records of two procedures carried out by Mahendra Amin, the doctor accused of performing the procedures on large numbers of detainees at the Irwin County Detention Center.
Heath Clark, an attorney for ERH Healthcare, said that hospital records show Wooten’s allegations to be “demonstrably false.” He also said there are no other available venues for hysterectomies nearby.
He told the Post: “These allegations are disturbing and sensational, but they are not supported by reality.”
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“Dr. Amin is a longtime member of the Irwin County Hospital medical staff and has been in good standing for the entirety of his service to the Irwin County community.”
Dawn Wooten, a whistleblower nurse who had previously worked in the Georgia immigration center, filed a complaint to the Office of the Inspector General earlier this month.
She alleged “jarring medical neglect” and said there had been unwanted and unnecessary hysterectomies that the detained women did not consent to or really understand.
Amin was not named as the doctor accused of performing the operations in the complaint, but he was later identified in news reports. He has repeatedly denied the allegations.
Wooten described him as the “uterus collector.”
Activists have claimed many of the procedures took place, and that it happened at an abnormal scale, but they did not give a specific number.
The allegations of unwanted hysterectomies has prompted widespread attention from media and lawmakers, including a Congressional hearing.
AP Photo/Jeff Amy
Clark told the Post that the hospital is the only place that a procedure like a hysterectomy would be performed in Irwin County, though Amin has a private clinic near the detention center.
Clark also denied reports that Amin has an ownership stake in the hospital.
Amin previously served as the medical director for the labor and delivery department at Irwin County Hospital.
Growing allegations
Amin’s attorney denied any wrongdoing from Amin in a statement to Insider earlier this week.
It said: “Dr. Amin is a highly respected physician who has dedicated his adult life to treating a high-risk, underserved population in rural Georgia.”
There are no disciplinary actions noted on Amin’s medical licence.
But he was previously accused of defrauding the Medicaid and Medicare programs alongside other doctors in a case that was ultimately dismissed.
During that case he was accused of requiring “certain tests always be run on pregnant patients, without any medical evaluation and regardless of her condition.”
A Georgia attorney who represents clients who have been detained in Irwin previously told Insider that she had received several complaints about Amin.
She said of Amin’s accusers “I totally believed them with every fibre of my being and felt relieved.”
The Post reported that other women had come forward to claim Amin had performed gynecological treatments they did not fully agree to or understand, including one who said that he removed one of her Fallopian tubes without consent.
Amin has also received scrutiny for not being a board-certified OBG-YN.
The certification is not required to do the job, but is a way for physicians to prove and expand their skills.
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