The young woman, who had died during her delivery at the Decazeville maternity hospital, suffered an amniotic embolism, according to experts.
The tragedy had led to the closure of the small maternity hospital in Decazeville, a small town of 7,000 inhabitants in Aveyron. Élodie Assié, a 35-year-old woman, died in childbirth on October 5, 2016, and her baby did not survive either. The Occitanie Regional Health Agency then temporarily closed the establishment, which has only 28 beds and performs fewer than 300 deliveries per year.
An inspection was then carried out to determine the causes of the incident. The experts in charge of the investigation have delivered their conclusions. The mother died of an amniotic embolism, a rare pathology, impossible to predict, and which jeopardizes the survival of the mother, and the child: she is responsible for 10% of the 60 to 80 deaths in childbirth recorded in France every year.
Death by suffocation
When the water bag breaks, part of the amniotic fluid that surrounds the fetus passes into the mother’s bloodstream. This still unexplained phenomenon can have serious consequences: cells travel through the mother’s blood system to the lungs.
There, they can clog the capillaries of the alveoli. The oxygen uptake is bad, and the mother can no longer breathe. The baby, if it is still in its mother’s womb, is then also deprived of oxygen. Both are in danger.
A reopening in sight?
“These conclusions of the expert’s report indicate that there was no breach of security,” said Maxime Gaillac, CGT delegate from the Decazeville hospital. Therefore, we can logically think that the ARS will again authorize deliveries at the maternity hospital in Decazeville. All the more so since we followed its recommendations and that we raised safety to a level never reached at Decazeville, equivalent to the requirements of a maternity level 2 while we are in level 1. “
For several years, the inhabitants of the town have been fighting with the ARS Occitanie so that the maternity unit is kept open. On May 28, 2016, the ARS renewed its activity authorization for 5 years, but the deaths of Elodie Assié and her child had suspended it. A suspension renewed for six months on December 22.
But the ARS said in a press release that the result of this expertise will not affect the consultation which must decide the fate of the maternity ward.
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