The Belgian anesthetist, implicated after the death of a patient at the maternity hospital in Orthez, was released on Thursday under judicial supervision. She admitted to having drunk alcohol before the procedure.
His second request for release was successful. The Belgian anesthesiologist at the Orthez maternity hospital placed in pre-trial detention in France after the death of a patient at the end of September was therefore released this Thursday morning.
A nightmare childbirth
In this drama, Helga Wauters had yet admitted to investigators “having drunk” on September 26, one evening when she was in charge of a 28-year-old woman in labor. After performing an epidural on the patient, Ms. Wauters went out to have a “glass of rosé” with friends. But the delivery went badly, she had been called back to participate in a cesarean.
On his return to Orthez hospital, the anesthetist smelled of alcohol and his behavior and speech seemed strange to his colleagues. The situation then turned to tragedy: instead of using the operating theater ventilator, the anesthesiologist used a manual balloon to ventilate his patient and intubated the digestive tract instead of the respiratory tract. In cardiac arrest, the young woman will be transferred to the Pau hospital where she succumbs four days later. Her baby is safe and sound.
Prohibition to practice medicine
Faced with these elements, the judges of the Court of Appeal who examined the appeal lodged by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (after the decision of a judge to release the anesthesiologist) specified that this release is accompanied by an “obligation to reside in France, a ban on leaving the country, a ban on practicing medicine, the obligation to attend a center for the fight against alcoholism as well as a deposit of 50,000 euros ”.
“It is a regrettable decision which will be difficult to accept,” said in the daily The world the victim’s family lawyer, Me Philippe Courtois. “Even if the conditions are more drastic than those requested by the judge of freedoms and detention” initially, “this person will be subject to himself because he has an obligation of care but he can go out in the evening and alone”, said declared Me Courtois, judging that this presented “a risk for herself and for the others. “
As a reminder, the Aquitaine Regional Health Agency (ARS) announced on October 23 the end of deliveries at the maternity hospital in Orthez, for lack of obstetricians. The tragedy at the end of September precipitated this decision, which had been running for several months.
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