Cii Radio|Ayesha Ismail|07 June 2018|22 Ramadaan 1439
A shamed gynaecologist who caused an unborn baby to be decapitated inside his mother’s womb during a bungled hospital delivery was told she could keep her NHS job on Tuesday night.
Dr Vaishnavy Laxman escaped censure after a medical tribunal said she posed “no risk to patient safety”.
The consultant listened as panel chairman Tim Bradbury told the hearing in Manchester: “In respect of patient safety, the tribunal was satisfied Dr Laxman does not currently present a risk to patients.”
“Her wrong decision related to an isolated, single incident in an otherwise unblemished career.” Last night, despite pleas by the General Medical Council to impose sanctions for serious professional misconduct, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service said it did not believe Dr Laxman’s fitness to practise medicine was ‘impaired’ by the shocking incident.
It also ruled no warning would be placed on her record. The doctor is currently practising medicine in her native India.
She was found guilty of several disciplinary charges on Monday and criticised for ‘an error of judgement’ following the tragedy on March 16, 2014, while she was working at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, Scotland.
Dr Laxman, 43, should have given the 30-year old mother an emergency Caesarean section but she tried to carry out the delivery naturally.
Instead, the doctor tried to carry out the delivery naturally and tragedy struck when she urged the patient to push while herself applying traction to the baby boy’s legs.
The tribunal heard that the legs, arms and torso became detached, leaving the head in the womb. Two other doctors carried out a C-section to remove the infant’s head. It was ‘re-attached’ to his body so his mother could hold him before she said goodbye. It is believed the child was dead before he was decapitated.
During the hearing, Laxman, who qualified in Chennai, India, said she believed the baby would have died during a caesarean section. In a harrowing exchange during the hearing, Patient A looked at the doctor and said: ‘I don’t forgive you – I don’t forgive you’, as Dr Laxman stared down at the floor.
Source – IOL News
