A tribunal has heard how a doctor forcefully pulled a baby out of her mother's womb during delivery resulting in death.
Dr Anupama Ram Mohan leaving the GMC in Manchester where she is accused of inappropriately delivering a twin boy (Picture: Cavendish)
A doctor is alleged to have pulled a baby around ‘like a ragdoll’ during a bungled delivery.
Harry Page, who was in a breech position when he was delivered, died within 24 hours from a massive brain injury, a tribunal heard. Dr Anupama Ram Mohan is alleged to have forcefully pulled Harry by his feet from ‘side to side and up and down’ while gritting her teeth. Harry suffered injuries to the base of his skull causing haemorrhaging during the birth in 2012. His twin brother, Ollie, was delivered safely by another doctor.
Dr Mohan, who had only worked at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, for four months, trained in India before working in Oman.
Harry’s father, Owen, expressed concerns during the birth.
He told the tribunal: ‘Harry was being pulled round like a ragdoll. It appeared she was pulling him side-to-side and up and down.
‘His legs were almost touching my wife’s stomach. His legs came down very quickly because there was a lot of force applied to it. It appeared to me at the time that Dr Mohan was gritting her teeth to do this procedure, she had a really tight face.
‘Watching the movement and the force and the look on her face worried me. I thought it was an uncontrolled procedure. She then let him hang there with no support for a period of time before she did the same procedure again.. She was standing there with her hands down by her waist. On the second manoeuvre he literally popped out.
‘Initially I thought Harry’s neck was going to stretch, break or give in. I was horrified by it. It looked like it was so stretched it was going to snap.’
Harry’s mother Vicki, said: ‘On one of two occasions she lifted his feet in the air and it felt more intrusive and she was more vigorous and his feet came close to my stomach.
‘I felt it was aggressive when I was there and I was looking at others for reassurance and didn’t get that when I looked at people’s faces so I was concerned.’
Mrs Page said: ‘I believe the manoeuvre she carried out caused his death and it was irreversible as the consultant told us on the day we turned his life support machine off.’
The hearing was told Mohan had tried two different procedures to deliver Harry – the Burns Marshall and the Mauriceau Smellie Veit. She initially tried the Burns Marshall method then the MSV before returning to the original procedure.
The ‘Burns Marshall’ manoeuvre involves bringing the baby’s feet, legs and shoulders out of the pelvis and then swinging the body up. But it was claimed Mohan caused Harry’s legs to be moved too high and past his vertical position and also too near to his mother’s abdomen – placing tremendous strain on his neck.
Mohan 51, from Milton Keynes, later claimed at no point did she lift his legs ‘past the vertical’. But she was accused of lying in statements and in evidence to a coroner who recorded a narrative verdict at an inquest in 2013.
Lawyer for the General Medical Council, Paul Raudnitz said: ‘Dr Mohan performed the Burns Marshall but did so in such a way she brought the legs of Harry greater than the vertical and near to Mrs Page’s abdomen.
‘She has accepted she attempted a Burns Marshall, but denied it was with any force and, in particular, she has consistently denied that she brought the legs greater than the vertical. She has said she went on to perform MSV and maintained that that was successful in delivery.
‘She has denied there was any attempted, successful or otherwise, second Burns Marshall. Whether she brought the legs greater than the vertical in one or more of the Burns Marshall manoeuvres the GMC say the way she performed is part of the issue.
‘Should it be found she brought the legs greater than the vertical then we would say that the standard of care was seriously below that expected of a reasonably competent registrar in obstetrics.’
Mr Raudnitz added that Dr Mohan then gave ‘false evidence’ to the coroner to ‘minimise her culpability for what happened’.
Mohan denies misconduct and denies causing the tot’s death. She is also accused of failing to record issues she encountered during Harry’s birth but admits failing to record using one or more Burns-Marshall manoeuvre. She denies advising for inappropriate medication to be administered during the delivery, making false records and giving false evidence to the inquest.
The hearing continues.
