[ad_1]
PAU, France: A French court on Thursday (November 12) sentenced a Belgian anesthetist to three years in prison and banned her from practicing medicine for the death of a British woman after an emergency cesarean section she performed while drunk.
Helga Wauters, 51, was convicted of manslaughter in the death of Xynthia Hawke, who died four days after a chaotic procedure that deprived her brain of oxygen.
Hawke, whose baby survived, was delayed when he was admitted to the maternity ward at Orthez Hospital near the southwestern city of Pau on September 26, 2014.
Wauters, who had been on the job for less than two weeks, inserted a vent tube into Hawke’s feeding tubing instead of his windpipe. He also allegedly used an oxygen mask instead of a ventilator.
Wauters was not in court for the ruling.
He admitted to starting the fateful day with a vodka and water mixture, “like every day” for the past 10 years.
But she denied being solely responsible for Hawke’s death, insisting that other staff members were also at fault and claiming that the ventilator was not working at the time, although the investigation concluded that this claim was not true.
Wauters had given Hawke an epidural local anesthetic earlier that day.
During the delivery, complications arose that required an emergency cesarean section.
When she returned to the maternity ward after being called in for general anesthesia, Wauters had alcohol on her breath, according to witnesses.
AS “BAGDAD”
Hawke woke up during the operation and began to vomit and scream “it hurts” before having his tubes pulled out.
A nurse on duty described the scene as a war zone.
“It was Baghdad,” he said.
Xynthia Hawke’s family was in court during the trial. (Photo: AFP / Gaizka Iroz)
Wauters told investigators that he had a “glass of rose wine” with friends before returning to the hospital.
Right after being stopped, her blood alcohol content was found to be 2.38g per liter, which normally corresponds to about 10 glasses of wine, and is more than four times the level allowed when driving in France. .
The Pau court ordered Wauters on Thursday to pay nearly 1.4 million euros ($ 1.65 million) in damages to Hawke’s relatives.
“Justice has set an example for this type of doctor who, in my opinion, is not a doctor,” said Yannick Balthazar, Hawke’s partner, who was present at the ruling.
Wauters had moved to France to work after being fired from her job at a Belgian hospital for looking drunk at work.
The recruiting agency that hired her on behalf of the clinic had not verified her credentials, the investigation revealed.
