British citizens have reacted with disgust and anger after a doctor who inadvertently caused an unborn baby to be decapitated inside his mother’s womb was cleared to return to work.
Dr Vaishnavy Vilvanathan Laxman, a consultant gynaecologist, was working at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, Scotland in March 2014 when the tragedy occurred.
She was immediately suspended following the incident, and in recent weeks has faced a medical tribunal as her career hung in the balance.
But while the 43-year-old was found “culpable” of medical failures earlier this week, she has now been cleared of misconduct after an expert panel found the baby’s death was the result of “a single error of judgment made in very difficult circumstances”.
The shock decision means the doctor is free to deliver babies immediately.
Dr Laxman was nearing the end of a 24-hour shift when a 30-year-old first time expectant mother arrived at the hospital’s maternity unit after her waters broke just 25 weeks into the pregnancy.
The baby was in the breech position and had a prolapsed cord, while the mother’s cervix was less than four centimetres dilated.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester previously heard that Dr Laxman should have given the patient an emergency C-section, given those serious complications.
However, she insisted on a natural birth, urging the mother to push while she applied traction to the baby’s leg, which caused the decapitation.
The tribunal heard the baby had already died before the decapitation occurred.
The infant’s head then had to be removed via Caesarian and it was reattached to the child’s torso before the grieving mum was allowed to see her deceased son.
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