Although every birth is painful, not all moms experience the same level of agony. Take it from one California mom from San Diego, who survived one of the most traumatic ways a woman can give birth. Delphina Mota was screaming because she felt everything the doctors did while they performed an emergency C-section without giving her any anesthesia. The mom described the experience as "something like out of a horror movie" and is now suing the hospital. But that hasn't stopped people on the internet from judging her.
Before Mota gave birth to her daughter, Cali, doctors decided she needed an emergency C-section.
According to Buzzfeed, Dr. Sandra Lopez at Tri-City Medical Center made the call for an emergency C-section on November 16, 2016, the day after the 25-year-old mom and her fiancé, Paul Iheanachor, had come in to the hospital hoping for Mota to be induced. Mota was about 41 weeks along in her pregnancy and spent the night in the hospital waiting for her baby to come. But the mom was out of luck.
She said that about 5:21 a.m., things took a turn for the worse when Mota's blood pressure began to drop and Lopez couldn't find a heartbeat for the baby. The doctor reportedly decided to call for an emergency C-section to save the baby's life.
The anesthesiologist on-call, Dr. David Seif, was reportedly paged multiple times, but according to Mota's lawsuit, the doctor never showed.
According to NBC 4 New York, about three minutes after Lopez made the decision to perform the procedure, she paged anesthesiologist Dr. David Seif, who did not respond to the "multiple" pages sent for him across the hospital.
About nine minutes later, a second round of pages were reportedly sent, but Seif still did not respond.
Buzzfeed reported that while pages were being sent for the doctor, Lopez told nurses in the operating room, "strap her down." Mota's arms and legs were then strapped to the table and with no sign of Seif in sight, Lopez began to make her incision into Mota's uterus.
According to Lopez's "Operative Report," which was featured in Buzzfeed's reporting, she performed the surgery without anesthesia and separated Mota's abdominal muscles to reach her uterus.
"Once I felt it, I was just screaming like, 'Stop. I can feel it. I can feel it.' And after that, I'm pretty sure I passed out from the pain," Mota told NBC 7. "[It was] something like out of a horror movie. You can't imagine. I would rather have delivered (Cali) vaginally, with no medicine, than being cut with a knife."
Iheanachor told reporters that he could hear Mota's screams until she was finally fell silent when she fainted.
In their lawsuit against the hospital, Iheanachor described that he was "held back by several hospital personnel," when he tried to comfort his clearly distraught fiancée.
Seif reportedly appeared in the operating room after Lopez had made her incisions. And although the lawsuit does note that Mota had been given an epidural the night before, "it had no effect on the surgical site for the C-section, which was located on her abdomen." Not to mention that the American Pregnancy Association states that the effects of the drug only last up to one to two hours.
Speaking with NBC 7, Iheanachor recalled how terrible it was to be helpless and unable to comfort Mota. "If somebody put a knife in your stomach and cut you open, and had their hands on your insides, and ripped your baby out, you know. I just tried to put myself in her shoes,” he said. “Just tried to wrap my mind around how it would feel to basically be gutted like a fish."
While the hospital has yet to respond to the story, a representative of the Anesthesia Service Medical Group (ASMG), of which Seif is a member, sent a press release to NBC 7. “The group, on behalf of Dr. Seif, is confident that anesthesia services would have been available, and were available," it stated. "Additionally, the group and Dr. Seif are confident that the care provided by Dr. Seif was appropriate under the circumstances.”
The couple are now suing Tri-City Medical Center, Lopez, and Seif for malpractice and are seeking $5.75 million in damages.
Since the news of this story broke on August 1, 2018, Mota and Iheanachor have received an outpouring of love from people who've read their story on the internet. But not everyone agrees that the couple should be taking legal action.
Some users online can't believe that this mom isn't just grateful that her baby is alive.
They feel that saving the baby's life was most important and the mom should appreciate what the doctors did.
Haters are labeling her as "sue happy" or just looking for money.
But others are sticking up for her after going through "torture."
And reminding everyone that a women aren't just "walking wombs" and their pain matters.
"To all those staying 'I'd have chosen that pain if it were that or losing my baby,' the point is that it would have been your CHOICE," another person wrote.
"What's more terrifying than the article itself? All the women in this comment section who have gone through the same thing/were ignored by their doctor. Something needs to change," another person added.
And this lady wants people to "sit down," adding that "most of y'all b**ch about a paper cut."
But one user's clap back perfectly sums it up.
Although we don't know how the suit will shake out, Mota and Iheanachor spoke with the Los Angeles Times and said their daughter is growing up fine and healthy, seven months after her mother's horrific delivery.
"The baby is perfect,” her dad said.
