Surgical tech here. Can’t really comment on the clinical justification for what’s going on here cuz 1) I’m just a tech; and 2) I wasn’t there; but I’ve done a metric fuck-ton of c-sections, so figured I’d chime in with some behind-the-scenes insight. C-sections can be brutal as hell. Never been in on a vaginal delivery, cuz that’s not OR territory, but c-sections are the kind of case you’re on high alert for the entire time cuz shit can go south really fast for both mother and baby. The amount of force I’ve seen (and contributed to) applied to get a baby out could definitely be in dismemberment territory if there was some defect at play that could make the bones/muscles weaker than normal… article doesn’t say anything about that being the case, but point is that we tend to think of handling babies as being an exceptionally gentle process, and that is 100% not the case when it comes to getting them out of the mother.
Some of the most horrific things I’ve seen in the OR have been in the c-section room. But they’re the kind of thing that if you don’t do, it’s basically a death sentence for the mom or the baby… like, do you leave a baby stuck in the birth canal with its umbilical cord wrapped around its neck; or do you pull a little harder to get it out? You’re weighing certain death against possible death, but the latter being an exceptionally shocking worse-case scenario.
Can’t emphasize enough: wasn’t there, can’t justify squat, but I have been in situations where the the surgeon weighed a risk like that, and the only reason you didn’t read about that case in the news was that the risk paid off and we got the desired outcome. Luck.
The ruling on this one of homicide as opposed to murder or even involuntary manslaughter is a point of interest. Homicide is the killing of another human, but isn’t typically a charge in and of itself… illegal and intentional homicide is murder; legal and justifiable homicide could be something like self defense… but just “homicide” only tells us that the baby was killed, and yeah no shit.
Anyway, based on my own experience, I’d give the doc and delivery team the benefit of the doubt in terms of the operation: extreme circumstances can call for an extreme response, and when that doesn’t work, the result is also extreme. This is a case that will haunt the staff involved all the way to the grave - really hope the hospital hooks them all up with top-notch therapy after that shit. The absence of murder/manslaughter charge leads me to believe their investigation found some merit in the doc’s decision to pull extra hard.
Thad said, state law is a weird animal, so “homicide” in Georgia legally speaking could be equatable to “murder” everywhere else. /shrug.
But even assuming the best-case-scenario clinically, the lack of transparency after the fact though is 100% inexcusable, but also unsurprising coming from a private hospital. Their decisions are driven by money and PR. Ethics are a tie breaker at best.
Surgical tech here. Can’t really comment on the clinical justification for what’s going on here cuz 1) I’m just a tech; and 2) I wasn’t there; but I’ve done a metric fuck-ton of c-sections, so figured I’d chime in with some behind-the-scenes insight. C-sections can be brutal as hell. Never been in on a vaginal delivery, cuz that’s not OR territory, but c-sections are the kind of case you’re on high alert for the entire time cuz shit can go south really fast for both mother and baby. The amount of force I’ve seen (and contributed to) applied to get a baby out could definitely be in dismemberment territory if there was some defect at play that could make the bones/muscles weaker than normal… article doesn’t say anything about that being the case, but point is that we tend to think of handling babies as being an exceptionally gentle process, and that is 100% not the case when it comes to getting them out of the mother.
Some of the most horrific things I’ve seen in the OR have been in the c-section room. But they’re the kind of thing that if you don’t do, it’s basically a death sentence for the mom or the baby… like, do you leave a baby stuck in the birth canal with its umbilical cord wrapped around its neck; or do you pull a little harder to get it out? You’re weighing certain death against possible death, but the latter being an exceptionally shocking worse-case scenario.
Can’t emphasize enough: wasn’t there, can’t justify squat, but I have been in situations where the the surgeon weighed a risk like that, and the only reason you didn’t read about that case in the news was that the risk paid off and we got the desired outcome. Luck.
The ruling on this one of homicide as opposed to murder or even involuntary manslaughter is a point of interest. Homicide is the killing of another human, but isn’t typically a charge in and of itself… illegal and intentional homicide is murder; legal and justifiable homicide could be something like self defense… but just “homicide” only tells us that the baby was killed, and yeah no shit.
Anyway, based on my own experience, I’d give the doc and delivery team the benefit of the doubt in terms of the operation: extreme circumstances can call for an extreme response, and when that doesn’t work, the result is also extreme. This is a case that will haunt the staff involved all the way to the grave - really hope the hospital hooks them all up with top-notch therapy after that shit. The absence of murder/manslaughter charge leads me to believe their investigation found some merit in the doc’s decision to pull extra hard.
Thad said, state law is a weird animal, so “homicide” in Georgia legally speaking could be equatable to “murder” everywhere else. /shrug.
But even assuming the best-case-scenario clinically, the lack of transparency after the fact though is 100% inexcusable, but also unsurprising coming from a private hospital. Their decisions are driven by money and PR. Ethics are a tie breaker at best.