(DAILY BEAST) As at so many modern births, the camera was rolling as 27-year-old Kimberly Turbin gave birth to her son at California’s Providence Tarzana Medical Center in 2013. The video, which went viral this year, also recorded Turbin’s episiotomy, the medical term for a surgical cut of the perineum—from the vagina to the anus—used to facilitate or hurry a difficult delivery. But Turbin claims the procedure was done without her consent, and the horrifying video is now being used by the new mother in an assault and battery lawsuit against the provider who performed it, Dr. Alex Abbassi.
In the very NSFW video Turbin, a self-described two-time sexual assault survivor, lies on her back, naked form the waist down, her legs in stirrups. Turbin, who has apparently had an epidural, attempts to push. One her third try, the on-call physician, Dr. Abbassi, silently readies a pair of scissors and a cloth.
“I’m going to do the episiotomy now,” he says.
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