A California mom who welcomed a baby girl in November is suing her doctor and the hospital she gave birth in after she claims she underwent an emergency caesarian section without anesthesia.
According to the lawsuit obtained by NBC 7 and filed on July 13, Delphina Mota and her fiancé, Paul Iheanachor, arrived at Tri-City Medical Center in Nov. 15 for the birth of their daughter and requested an epidural before a planned vaginal delivery.
Mota contends that Dr. Sandra Lopez oversaw her care, and that Dr. David Seif administered the epidural to numb her from the waist down. She also says she was given Pitocin to help advance her labor.
However, on Nov. 16, it was determined that Mota’s blood pressure dropped and that the baby’s heart rate was difficult to read, prompting Lopez to call for an emergency C-section, in which the baby is taken out through the mother’s abdomen.
C-sections account for about 1 in 3 births in the U.S., with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting that in 2016, C-sections accounted for 31.9 percent of all U.S. births.
According to the lawsuit, Seif was paged multiple times, but did not respond, so nine minutes later, “the C-Section was performed by Defendant Sandra Lopez, M.D.” without anesthesia. Mota claims Lopez instructed staff to “strap her down” to the operating table before cutting her open.
The lawsuit claims Seif entered the room after multiple incisions were made, and that Mota had been crying and screaming because she could “feel everything that was happening, and was also pleading for help, and for Defendants to stop cutting and hurting her.”
“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,” Iheanachor told NBC 7. “I just tried to put myself in her shoes. Just tried to wrap my mind around how it would feel to basically be gutted like a fish.”
Mota and Iheanachor, whose baby did not suffer any complications during the delivery, allege that the hospital and staff were careless and negligent and that Mota suffered permanent and significant injuries and emotional distress.
“As a direct and legal result of the above described negligence, Plaintiff Delphina Mota, underwent excruciating and unnecessary pain and suffering, until she eventually passed out from the pain,” the lawsuit said.
Filed under: General Problems
I am curious to know where the anesthesiologist was. There could be several good reasons, and I am thinking he’d better have at least one of them….
I had my left leg tibia and fibula fractured in a ski accident in Dec 1983. The beginner skier who t-boned me caused a nasty boot top spiral fracture of both bones. It was if someone reached in and was so strong, both bones were twisted and broken in half. A good size chunk that broke off ripped thru tissue, muscle and the fascii that encases muscled stopped short of breaking thru the skin. I had to be admitted on an urgent basis as when Kaiser Ortho reset the bones they slipped and needed to be surgically aligned with the possibility of a rod being placed which is what happened. Way back then I was terrified of being put under so an epidural was given. I was awake but in lala land and two hours into the surgery the block was wearing off, a lot. Not being one to suffer in silence I vocalized my pain.y surgeon by then who had told me multiple times to shut up, I wanted to know exactly what he was doing. All of a sudden I let a scream out and the blackness came over me. Thankfully there was an anesthesiologist present and he probably gave me Propofol. I remember him telling me the block should have lasted four hours. I told him well, it’s not working now getting very frightened along with the pain. Even post-op my pain was poorly managed, Demerol q4 hours, that was it. One of my three roommates complained to the nurse apparently multiple times I was crying in pain non stop. He finally added an oral opioid so every two hours I was getting something and my pain controlled to a tolerable level. It happens in patients, our bodies all different, we metabolize differently. What she experienced was unacceptable.
So the epidural didn’t work??? and they didn’t think to deaden the area with a local, before cutting? They wouldn’t have used a general and knocked her out, as many prefer to watch the delivery, whichever way. They wouldn’t use any type of opioid that close to delivery because it would have affected the baby and the testing they do immediately after to make sure baby is alright. I had to deliver without anything for this reason… It was not pleasant, but can’t imagine being cut open without a local, if the epidural wasn’t working. Thats nuts!
that isn’t just negligence, that’s assault!
This poor women,,,wtf,….this is directly caused by thee opiatephobia,prop-aganda,and those soooo arrogant they think they have the right to torture another human being..Theee abuse of the feral, oh oops,federal government practicing medicine,,Andrew kolodyn,,,Ballantyne,,,this is called torture,,,that your opiatephobic opinions have created…This happen’d because all of the so-called people who have stood by and allowed the medically ill in physical pain be tortured,,some tortured to death,,,,the ”group think,” of ,,its not happening to me soo it doesn’t matter types!!!,,,My god,,there dam lucky she did not die of a heart attacjk,,I would of!!!!!sue the living crap out of them!!!!! strap her down!!!!!!!wtf is wrong w/people,,ie ,”some”doctors,,that Doctor should loose her dam license,,,her action were just sickening,,inhumane,tortueous,cruel,barbaric,and archaic,,,,,Welcome to the dark ages in Medicine,,,,caused by Andrew Kolodyn and his Klan,,,Hey I got an Idea,,lets cut a basketball size hole in his belly w/no MEDICINE,, see how he likes it,,,,,,Sorry,,,this whole mess,,,has gone sooo far beyond the pail,,,it truly sickens me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!maryw
actually, even in the Dark Ages they’d usually get a person dead drunk or conk them on the head before they did something drastic like cutting off a limb (they didn’t do many C-sections back then), so it’s actually WORSE than the Dark Ages.
Beyond insane.
What the HELL?! What was the hospitals response as to why they would ever ever do that to someone?! That’s crazy!
Oh my god. I keep reading about people forced to undergo surgical treatment without pain relief…there’s at least one place (Cleveland Clinic) where they boast about it, as if it’s a good thing. I wonder if they gave her a leather strap to bit on, a la civil war amputations (& all medical procedures prior to that)?
How can a so-called doctor possibly think that is “doing no harm”? Maybe they thing that since she eventually passed out, anesthesia & pain meds aren’t necessary??