State Board Charges Doctor With Negligence in Botched Abortions : Medicine: Investigators say two women suffered internal injuries. The former Studio City physician will contest the allegations.

State medical investigators have accused a former Studio City doctor of botching abortions on a 17-year-old girl and a 20-year-old woman, leaving them with perforated uteri and other internal injuries.

Authorities charged that Dr. Saihb S. Halil did not finish a 1987 abortion on the teen-ager and sent her home without telling her he accidentally cut her uterus and colon and left part of the fetus inside her.

The following year, Halil, 44, perforated the 20-year-old’s uterus twice and cut her bowel without realizing he had done so, officials alleged. The woman needed two corrective operations at a hospital, they said.

The Medical Board of California, the state agency that disciplines doctors, filed charges of gross negligence and incompetence against Halil on April 29, the first step toward suspending or canceling his physician’s license.

Halil could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Robert H. Gans, did not return phone calls. But Halil has notified the medical board that he will contest the charges.

In addition to the cases the state is pursuing, Halil has been named as the defendant in lawsuits charging that he bungled the care of two other women, one of whom died the day after delivering a baby.

The other woman charged in her suit that a Halil abortion left her sterile. After the surgery, she said, he made sexual overtures toward her.

A native of Egypt, Halil received his medical degree at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico and later was a resident in obstetrics and gynecology at Royal Victoria Hospital in Canada, according to state records.

After the lawsuits were filed, he moved to Puerto Rico and is undergoing an unusual second Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at a clinic in the port city of Mayaguez, according to American Medical Assn. records.

Vicki Belkin Halil, a San Fernando Valley woman who identified herself as a relative of Halil, said he is “redoing his residency. . . . He’s starting all over again in ob-gyn.” She declined to answer most other questions.

Neal Fialkow, a lawyer who handled two lawsuits against the doctor, said, “I hope he does better this time than the first.”

State investigators said Halil failed to conduct a basic examination of the 17-year-old or establish how advanced her pregnancy was before beginning an abortion on her in 1987.

During the procedure, Halil perforated the girl’s uterus and nicked her colon. After stopping the abortion, he did an ultrasound that showed her fetus was maimed but “not . . . completely evacuated,” according to the state’s complaint.

Halil failed to tell the girl that she was injured internally, that part of her fetus remained and that she should seek immediate remedial surgery elsewhere, authorities said.

Three days later, surgeons at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center had to give the girl a temporary colostomy and repair damage to her uterus and colon, a section of which had to be removed, state officials said.

Following the surgery, the teen-ager sued Halil in Los Angeles Superior Court, charging that he was negligent. She won “at least $250,000” in an out-of-court settlement, according to a knowledgeable source who asked not to be identified.

In a deposition filed as part of that suit, Halil said he was not sure if the girl’s uterus was perforated when he discharged her from the Los Angeles women’s clinic where he then worked.

He claimed he told the girl her fetus had not been completely removed and that she should go to the county hospital immediately because the remains could produce a life-threatening infection. But he said he was not sure if she understood.

In another case cited by the state, Halil allegedly perforated the uterus and bowel of a 20-year-old woman, but failed to realize it.

Halil did not evaluate the woman after the abortion and allowed her to be discharged from the clinic by unlicensed personnel, said state Deputy Atty. Gen. Elisa B. Wolfe, who is handling the case against Halil.

The day after the 1988 abortion, the woman underwent surgery at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center to repair her uterus and bowel. Less than a month later, she was readmitted for more surgery, this time to clear a bowel obstruction and reduce swelling around her appendix.

Besides the state charges, Halil was the target of civil lawsuits in connection with his treatment of two other women.

In one, the family of Mercedes Soriano said she died in 1991 after Halil and two hospitals allegedly failed to treat a condition called eclampsia, which causes convulsions, swelling and high blood pressure in late pregnancy.

The hospitals filed court responses denying the charges, but Halil apparently has not retained an attorney in that case, according to court documents.

The other suit was filed by a 19-year-old woman who charged that Halil used unsterilized scissors from an office desk to cut her uterine tissue during a 1988 abortion.

She also said Halil did not give her enough anesthesia and refused to halt the procedure despite her screams of pain.

She said he mistakenly cut her uterus and bowel and detached her right ovary and Fallopian tube--injuries she said left her unable to bear children. The woman said that when she began hemorrhaging, Halil sent her to a nearby hospital by car, rather than ambulance.

In a deposition, Halil’s former medical assistant said she was stunned to see him cut the woman with unsterilized scissors.

The assistant said in the deposition that she urged Halil, “My God, stop,” as the woman screamed repeatedly, but he continued.

Halil’s attorney in that suit did not return a phone call. But in court documents, Halil said that after discharging the woman from his clinic, he helped surgeons at the hospital repair her injuries.

He added that his use of unsterilized scissors did not pose an infection risk to her and that he sent her to the hospital by car because he wanted her to get quick treatment.

However, another doctor, Edward Newton, assistant director of emergency medicine at County-USC Medical Center, said in court documents that the woman did become infected and required antibiotics because Halil used the scissors.

Newton said use of unsterilized scissors represented gross negligence on Halil’s part. Newton added that the woman should have been taken to the hospital by ambulance paramedics. Halil’s failure to call an ambulance indicates a “total disregard for the patient’s life and safety,” Newton said.

The woman said that after Halil operated on her, he “attempted to seduce her,” calling her numerous times at home.

She won an out-of-court settlement of “at least if not more than $250,000,” said a source close to the case.

Halil will face a hearing on the medical board charges but no date for it has been set, Wolfe said.