Opera diva cannot sing without farting after surgery
The mezzo-soprano is seeking £1.5million damages after doctors warned she might never recover.
Her attorney Charles Allen said: “She is suffering through a very embarrassing and very significant injury, and frankly, the prognosis of a fully successful repair is pretty low.”
Ms Herbst's lawsuit alleges a nurse botched an episiotomy - an incision to enlarge the birth opening - when she gave birth at a hospital on a US Army base in Kentucky, where her soldier husband James was stationed.
Legal papers claim the procedure was done without her consent and has since caused her “to experience faecal urgency and incontinence, including periodic leaking of stool and excessive flatulence”.
She says she also cannot have sex without severe pain.
The lawsuit adds: “As a result of her incontinence and excessive flatulence, Herbst has been unable to work as a professional opera singer.”
Ms Herbst, who sang with the Nashville Opera company before the birth of her son in February 2012, has been told she needs reconstructive surgery but it is unlikely to fix the problems completely.
She and her husband are suing the federal government for for $2.5million for negligence, pain and suffering, embarrassment and loss of income.
