Little-Acorn
Gold Member
The article's headline adds, "Can doctors do that?"
My question is, can doctors legally do anything else in cases like these?
In some cases (like this one), a C-section is medically safer than a vaginal birth, both for the mother and for the baby. The likelihood of one or both of them suffering serious injury, or even dying during the delivery, is higher during a vaginal birth than during a C-section.
That means that, out of the next 100 babies a doctor delivers under these conditions, injury or death will result in (2) cases if they are all done by C-section, but inujry or death will result in (15) cases if they are all done by vaginal delivery. Yes, I made up those numbers, but the lopsidedness of the statistics is accurate.
And the problem the doctor faces is (aside from not liking to have his patients die on him) is that after the 15 find themselves injured or dead, they can AND WILL sue the doctor for everything he owns. And the fact that the patient insisted on the vaginal delivery, will be ignored, and the doctor found guilty by a jury, once a John-Edward-type lawyer gets through with them.
If a doctor has a patient who is at much greater risk during a vaginal delivery than during a C-section, and the patient is nonetheless insisting on the vaginal delivery, what exactly is he supposed to do?
1.) If he does the C-section anyway, he gets sued (as this patient is suing).
2.) If he does NOT do the C-section, and the patient winds up injured or dead, he gets sued.
3.) If he decides to decline to help the patient and turn her over to another doctor, he gets sued for patient neglect.
What, exactly, is he supposed to do?
(My father was an obstetrician, and used to talk about this a lot, never mentioning patient's names or locations of course)
------------------------------------------------
Rinat Dray sues for forced C-section: Says doctors at Staten Island University Hospital performed the procedure against her will.
Woman Sues a New York Hospital for Forcing a C-Section. Can Doctors Do That?
by Jessica Grose
A New York woman, Rinat Dray, has filed suit against Staten Island University Hospital because she says doctors there forced her to have an unwanted cesarean section. According to the New York Times, Dray has had two C-sections prior to this pregnancy, and she wanted to give birth vaginally. After hours of labor, Dray says she was pressured into a C-section by doctors, who told Dray her uterus would rupture and that, if she didnt submit to the procedure, she would be committing the equivalent of child abuse and that her baby would be taken away from her.
Though Dray's doctor claims he did not force her to have a C-section, her hospital record included a note signed by the hospitals director of maternal and fetal medicine that said, I have decided to override her refusal to have a C-section. Per the Times, the note added that the hospital lawyer had agreed.
The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is crystal clear about how they feel about forced C-sections: Their ethics committee says it simply cannot currently imagine a situation in which any pregnant woman should be forced by the judicial system or her doctors to have surgery she does not want.* It doesnt matter if the doctors believe a C-section is in the best interest of the fetusthe mothers autonomy trumps that.
My question is, can doctors legally do anything else in cases like these?
In some cases (like this one), a C-section is medically safer than a vaginal birth, both for the mother and for the baby. The likelihood of one or both of them suffering serious injury, or even dying during the delivery, is higher during a vaginal birth than during a C-section.
That means that, out of the next 100 babies a doctor delivers under these conditions, injury or death will result in (2) cases if they are all done by C-section, but inujry or death will result in (15) cases if they are all done by vaginal delivery. Yes, I made up those numbers, but the lopsidedness of the statistics is accurate.
And the problem the doctor faces is (aside from not liking to have his patients die on him) is that after the 15 find themselves injured or dead, they can AND WILL sue the doctor for everything he owns. And the fact that the patient insisted on the vaginal delivery, will be ignored, and the doctor found guilty by a jury, once a John-Edward-type lawyer gets through with them.
If a doctor has a patient who is at much greater risk during a vaginal delivery than during a C-section, and the patient is nonetheless insisting on the vaginal delivery, what exactly is he supposed to do?
1.) If he does the C-section anyway, he gets sued (as this patient is suing).
2.) If he does NOT do the C-section, and the patient winds up injured or dead, he gets sued.
3.) If he decides to decline to help the patient and turn her over to another doctor, he gets sued for patient neglect.
What, exactly, is he supposed to do?
(My father was an obstetrician, and used to talk about this a lot, never mentioning patient's names or locations of course)
------------------------------------------------
Rinat Dray sues for forced C-section: Says doctors at Staten Island University Hospital performed the procedure against her will.
Woman Sues a New York Hospital for Forcing a C-Section. Can Doctors Do That?
by Jessica Grose
A New York woman, Rinat Dray, has filed suit against Staten Island University Hospital because she says doctors there forced her to have an unwanted cesarean section. According to the New York Times, Dray has had two C-sections prior to this pregnancy, and she wanted to give birth vaginally. After hours of labor, Dray says she was pressured into a C-section by doctors, who told Dray her uterus would rupture and that, if she didnt submit to the procedure, she would be committing the equivalent of child abuse and that her baby would be taken away from her.
Though Dray's doctor claims he did not force her to have a C-section, her hospital record included a note signed by the hospitals director of maternal and fetal medicine that said, I have decided to override her refusal to have a C-section. Per the Times, the note added that the hospital lawyer had agreed.
The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is crystal clear about how they feel about forced C-sections: Their ethics committee says it simply cannot currently imagine a situation in which any pregnant woman should be forced by the judicial system or her doctors to have surgery she does not want.* It doesnt matter if the doctors believe a C-section is in the best interest of the fetusthe mothers autonomy trumps that.
