Doctors all over the world regularly perform cesarean sections every day, usually without any problems due to advances in modern medicine. However, an infant born at Shaktinagar District Hospital in India died last month due to a slip of the doctor’s surgical knife during a C-section. The surgeon cut a one-inch deep gash on the newborn’s head. According to The Times of India, the mother’s family filed a complaint with police, but the doctor states that the electricity went off in the operating room at the time that he made his surgical mistake.
The surgeon admits that he did wound the baby with his surgical knife, and he reported following protocol by stitching the wound, administering saline and giving the newborn oxygen. However, the infant died that night. The superintendent of the hospital provides a differing account of the power outage, since he states that the power was never out at the hospital.
The family must pursue restitution from the hospital, regardless of whether the electricity went out or if the surgeon simply made a mistake. A fatal birth injury like this one cannot go unquestioned.
Cappolino Dodd Krebs LLP—Birth trauma attorney
