
Some 250 babies are born around the world every minute, each to a set of circumstances distinctly their own. Some will be born early and require extra medical attention in the NICU. Others may come out healthy and thriving. And then there are those who may not make it — a small, but significant percentage of babies who will be declared stillborn. There are risks associated with every birth, but all too often, we're only made aware of those that face the baby. We forget that even in the US — even in 2019 — hundreds of mothers still die in childbirth each year. Mothers like one 23-year-old woman in California, who bled to death in 2016 shortly after her baby was delivered. Now, the state's medical board is accusing the OB-GYN who delivered the baby of negligence and is seeking to have his license revoked.
The incident happened in September 2016, when the unnamed 23-year-old went into labor with her third child.
She was rushed to the hospital, where Dr. Arthur Park oversaw her birth, and her baby was safely delivered. But according to the California Medical Board, Park's conduct in the precious minutes after the birth are what ultimately led to the mother's death.
Park is accused of forcibly removing the placenta from the mother too soon after the baby's birth. The process of expelling the placenta typically happens within 30 minutes after the birth. But instead of waiting, Park is said to have removed the placenta using both clamps and his hands — as well as no pain medication.
The brutal afterbirth was noted by nursing staff who were in the room, the new lawsuit alleges.
“The nursing staff documented that during the placental extraction, the patient was screaming in pain and moving around in bed, and in his note, [Park] described her as ‘agitated,’ and did not consider or record consideration summoning the anesthesiologist to add medication to the patient’s epidural infusion prior to attempting to extract the placenta,” the lawsuit states.
And it only got worse from there.
The lawsuit alleges that Park “inadvertently perforated the uterus,” causing the mother's blood pressure to dangerously plummet.
Nurses repeatedly tried to jump in, insisting on examining the mother, who was writhing in agony. But Park was unfazed — even as she grew rapidly pale and began to lose consciousness.
Medical staff also alleged that he "did not order ultrasound imaging of the patient’s abdomen" or "any blood transfusions or any other life-saving resuscitative measures,” which only made the mother's condition go from bad to worse.
Soon, it was undeniable — something was terribly, terribly wrong.
It was only at this point that Park had the mother transferred to the ICU, where she suffered two heart attacks and died six hours after giving birth.
A medical examiner later found her cause of death to be postpartum hemorrhaging from traumatic laceration.
As of now, Park hasn't been charged with a crime in relation to the mother's death, but the California Medical Board seeks to hold a hearing to determine if his license should be revoked. If it is, it won't be the first time his license came into question — according to the lawsuit, Park actually spent three years on probation for negligence following two traumatic deliveries in 1996 and 1997.
The rising rate of maternal deaths over the last 10 to 20 years has been a growing concern among medical experts.
In fact, the US maternal mortality rate more than doubled from 1991 to 2014, going from 10.3 per 100,000 live births to 23.8 — which is shocking when you consider how medical advancements have grown by leaps and bounds during those very same years. However, in many of these cases, the rising death rates have been associated with lack of health care, poverty, and chronic ailments, rather than medical malpractice.