The Wels public prosecutor’s office is accusing a gynecologist at the Vöcklabruck Clinic of grossly negligent killing of a newborn; the doctor must answer for this today in the jury room of the Wels regional court. If convicted, he might face up to three years in prison.
The birth of a young mother who had visited the maternity ward at the Vöcklabruck Clinic with her husband on December 6th had a catastrophic outcome. It was already following midnight and the woman was suffering from severe pain, so an anesthetic was given to the patient who was giving birth.
Nevertheless, the doctor is said to have insisted on initiating the natural birth process, even though the woman was said to have been screaming and begging to have a cesarean section. According to the prosecution, an attempt was made to bring the child into the world using a suction cup.
As a result, the uterus ruptured and the baby may have suffered from a lack of oxygen during the process. She still had to be given artificial ventilation in the maternity ward, as the shocked father found out in the delivery room. His partner lost two and a half liters of blood. Lukas was taken to a clinic in Salzburg, where he was connected to life support machines. The parents decided on December 14, 2021 to have it switched off because it was hopeless.
The public prosecutor’s office also assumes gross negligence when it comes to the young mother’s injuries. The gynecologist is also accused of having “not personally examined the mother’s existing findings” and of having “not carried out a specialist medical assessment and consideration of the risks of the various birth modes”.
The woman giving birth is also said to have received “no adequate care”. The uterine rupture, which required emergency surgery, constituted serious bodily harm with damage to health lasting more than 24 days, according to the indictment.
Doctor pleads not guilty
An extensive medical report was obtained during the investigation, but the accused gynecologist has not yet made a confession and has not pleaded guilty. There have been no legal consequences so far.
A spokeswoman for the Upper Austrian Health Holding announced a few weeks ago that we would first have to wait for the final result of the ongoing criminal proceedings. “The courts will show us whether there was gross negligence.”
