Mother passes out from pain after doctors allegedly perform C-section without anesthesia
A new mother claims that she was cut open without anesthesia during an emergency C-section in Califonia. Delfina Mota was admitted at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside when she went into labor with her daughter Cali Iheanachor. While Delfina was in labor, her blood pressure dipped dangerously low and, to make matters worse, the doctors were unable to detect the heartbeat of the baby.
As a result, the doctors on call decided that it was important for her to have an emergency C-section in order to save the baby. Delfina recalls that the doctors did not give her anesthesia and proceeded with the operation even though she complained about excruciating pain.
Speaking to NBC 7, Delfina recalled feeling a knife cut into her belly and screaming for doctors to stop before she lost consciousness. The decision of performing an emergency C-section is taken by the doctors in situations when the mother or the baby is at a risk. Even though the operation is safe, it is important that a woman is given anesthesia in order to ensure that she does not go into shock or distress.
Delfina was left horrified when the surgery started taking place right before her eyes. "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," she recalled. "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."
Her fiance, Paul Iheanachor, was outside the room but could hear Deflina screaming in pain. "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. The lawsuit filed by the couple claims that Paul tried to enter the room but the employee of the hospital stopped him from doing so. "I just tried to wrap my mind around how it would feel to basically be gutted like a fish," he added.
According to the lawsuit filed by the pair, the delivery team paged the anesthesiologist on call, Dr. David Seif, several times but there was no response from him. They reportedly waited for nine minutes to hear from him but, when there was no sight of him, they decided to proceed with the procedure to save the mother and the daughter. Even the family's attorney Norman Finkelstein was shocked to hear about the incident.
He told NBC that, when he told people about the case, they asked him if it happened in a third world country. "If you want the best care, in case, God forbid, an emergency situation arises, you want to be in a big hospital, and this hospital failed," he said.
While Delfina and her daughter are in a good condition now, the trauma she faced after that incident still lives with her. "It's probably going to stay with me for the rest of my life," she said.
When Meaww contacted Tri-City Medical Center for their response, Aaron J Byzak, Chief Government and External Affairs Officer of Tri-City Medical Center, said: "Patient safety and quality are the utmost priorities for Tri-City Medical Center and all of our partners. Tri-City Healthcare District cannot comment further on pending litigation."