A doctor accused of giving an anti-convulsion drug to pregnant women without their knowledge is fighting back with a $26 million slander lawsuit, saying the treatment was not secret and was aimed at helping his patients. Hospital officials have accused physicians Lawrence Lavine and Antonio Aldrete of secretly giving injections of the drug Dilantin to as many as 240 women _ nearly all of them pregnant _ as part of an improper experiment. But in a lawsuit Tuesday, Lavine accused Dr. Agnes Lattimer, medical director of Cook County Hospital, of slander for calling the Dilantin injections a violation of hospital policy and for labeling them unethical. ``They (Lavine and Aldrete) did what doctors do all the time .. . try to ensure the health of their patients. And because of the outcry, now the hospital is going to crucify them,'' said Lavine's attorney, Richard Brauer. Lattimer declined comment on the lawsuit Tuesday afternoon. ``I cannot discuss this issue since it is a legal matter,'' she said. Brauer said the doctors gave the Dilantin in the course of treating the women shortly before their babies were delivered and not as an experiment. He contended that informed written consent was obtained from every patient treated, while hospital officials have contended that many patients were given the drug without their knowledge or consent. The doctors, who face a disciplinary hearing July 18, administered the anti-convulsants for four months beginning last September, after receiving approval from the hospital's medical staff for a study involving 50 women undergoing emergency Caesarean section. One of the women allegedly given the drug at Cook County has filed a lawsuit against the Cook County Board, the hospital, the doctors and other staff members. Brauer said giving anti-convulsants to pregnant women with epilepsy just before they go into labor ``has been accepted medical procedure since 1938.'' Brauer said the doctors ``were aware of the medical literature (on Dilantin) and knew well in advance it would be helpful across the range of pregnancy,'' especially in cases where inadequate pre-natal care appeared likely to cause fetal distress from insufficient oxygen at delivery. Because of the frequency of fetal distress, he said, the rate of infant mortality at Cook County was 3{ times higher than in the general population. ``And it became so obvious the babies were born healthier, the mothers suffered less ... that instead of risking the health of their patients, they used the anti-convulsants where they were appropriate,'' he said. After media reports on the practice in late May, Lattimer said the doctors had gone beyond the scope of the experiment. A week later, she told the Chicago Sun-Times, ``It was wrong for the physicians to violate the ethical principles as well as the rules and regulations of the hospital.''
