Midwife drugged 15 expectant mothers to ‘serve her own interests’

A midwife has been found guilty of deliberately drugging 15 patients, apparently in order to make her work easier, which left 13 of the patients needing to undergo caesarean sections to save the lives of their babies.

The patients were administered with Syntocinon, a labour-inducing drug, which resulted in the heartbeats of some of the babies dropping to as low as 50bpm.

At the recent Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) panel hearing, a representative from the NMC said “The only logical explanation that has been put forward as to why the registrant might have behaved in this way … is a desire to speed up the women’s time in labour in order to serve the registrant’s own interests.”

Giving evidence at the hearing, a consultant reported that she had never before witnessed such unexplained and drastic drops in babies’ heartbeats, and told of how the heart rate of one baby fell from 110bpm to 66pbm in under four minutes.

The consultant went on to say that the only logical explanation for this drop was the intravenous dose of Syntocinon, which could only be administered by a doctor.

She said “If too much is administered then it would make the uterus contract very firmly, which deprives the baby of oxygen. This means that they may require emergency delivery, and they could suffer from a brain injury, cerebral palsy, or even death.”

The panel must now decide whether to remove the midwife from their register.

Chadwick Lawrence’s team of Medical negligence lawyers have years of experience in high value and complex Medical negligence compensation claims and have an excellent record. The team is led by Tony May, a specialist cerebral palsy and birth injury solicitor, who has over 20 years experience in handling cases in which babies have been brain damaged or sustained other injuries as a result of Medical negligence. He and his team continue to represent many cerebral palsy children and young adults in Medical negligence claims. Tony also acts as the Court of Protection Deputy for many of the cerebral palsy and brain damaged clients that he has represented, so we can continue to support you after your case is settled. Tony can be contacted by email on tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk. Alternatively, please call and speak to any of Chadwick Lawrence’s specialist Medical negligence Legal Aid and no win-no fee solicitors for free legal advice on the freephone number below.

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For further information, please see our cerebral palsy and birth injury website:
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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), Medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.