Rob, it's a legitimate complaint, except it involves a whole lot of people. You're saying that nobody explained in specific detail that
- if your girlfriend was going to have an MRI, and
- since she had an IUD, and
- because it included copper,
- it would need to be removed for safety's sake,
at least someone should have
- mentioned the risk of pregnancy and
- let her decide whether to go ahead with the MRI.
(Alternatively,)
- somebody should have told you and her to refrain from sex in the five days before the removal of the IUD.
You might possibly try to make a "wrongful birth" complaint if she gets pregnant, but you fall into the problem of, who was responsible for the whole list, above? There wasn't just one doctor directing the whole thing. Who would you make a claim against? Maybe her ob/gyn didn't know she was going to get an MRI until they phoned to get cleared to remove the IUD. It's possible that nobody doing MRIs knows anything about the ramifications of removing an IUD directly after the woman has had sex. Or maybe they wouldn't think of asking, or would figure the ob/gyn covered this detail. And the ob/gyn would have to have been very alert to say "Oh, by the way, before we pull this IUD, have you had sex in the last couple of days? Because if so, we can cancel the procedure if you are worried about getting pregnant." There is just too much that fell into the purview of different specialties.
That all said, (and I get why you're annoyed), it doesn't sound like your girlfriend is likely to get pregnant from this. She has a very irregular cycle so you have a reduced chance she recently ovulated. And, women don't get pregnant every time they ovulate even when they are actively trying. And, as Kate noted, copper sets up a hostile uterine environment. (If I were trying to get pregnant, I wouldn't expect much to happen right after taking out an IUD that has copper, even if sex was exactly the day I ovulated.)
What you certainly have the right to do is talk to her ob/gyn, and say that when another part of the hospital calls for an order to remove someone's IUD, the average person probably does not know this but the first question should always be if the person has recently had sex (and doesn't want to risk pregnancy). You are right, this isn't something the average person on the street would just know, and one would hope the doctor does know it. Again, doctors aren't trained to think of things like this when they get a phone call to remove an IUD out of the blue, but if you explain how serious this was to you and how worrisome, possibly this particular doctor will learn from it.
The copper coil is a hostile environment for sperm and so it is highly like the sperm did not survive if the coil was in place when you had sex.
So, did your girlfriend know about the MRI? I think that is probably something your doctor expects patients to self manage. They aren't able to plan the MRI or IUD removal around your sex life. It is the norm to remove the IUD before this. Does your girlfriend know where she is at in her cycle to know when her ovulation usually is?