Limbs or skulls or parts of the placenta may be left inside the womb, causing severe infection, cramping and excessive bleeding. Treatment requires another dilation and curettage followed by antibiotics. Severe infection also can require hysterectomy to remove the diseased uterus. No More, Loyola Univ. As with all types of abortion, suction curettage results in high occurrence of embolisms.
Embolisms are blockages of blood vessels.
Many go unnoticed and are naturally dissolved, but when they occur in the brain or heart, they may cause strokes or heart attacks. In the lungs, embolisms can be deadly. Pulmonary emboli can follow two to fifty days after the abortion, so doctors may not make the causal connection, but there are reports of this affliction caused by abortion 200 times per year. This procedure differs from suction curettage essentially in that it is used later in pregnancy and in that rather than vacuum removal of the unborn child, the abortionist manually uses a blade to dismember it and scrapes the body parts out of the uterus into a basin. It involves sharper instruments and more scraping so it typically involves greater blood loss.