Doctors' fist fight leads to botched birth
The mother had to have her uterus removed and her son is suffering heart problems as well as possible brain damage
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Italy's health minister travelled to Sicily on Monday to apologise to a new mother for an operating room fistfight between two doctors that led to her botched delivery.
Laura Salpietro, 30, had to have her uterus removed and her son Antonio suffered heart problems and possible brain damage following his birth Thursday in Messina's public hospital, Italian news reports said.
Health officials and Salpietro's husband, Matteo Molonia, say the two doctors disagreed about whether to perform a Caesarean section and came to blows while Salpietro was in labour.
Molonia says the fight delayed the C-section by over an hour, leading to complications for mother and son.
Prosecutors have placed five doctors under investigation, and Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio visited Salpietro on Monday in the hospital to apologise.
"I tried to give her words of hope, and above all I tried to tell her that the government was with her and her family at this time," Fazio was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.
The incident was the latest evidence of medical mishaps frequently reported in southern Italian hospitals.
It also cast a fresh spotlight on their unusually high C-section rates: Some 38 percent of all births in Italy are done by C-section, more than twice the 15 percent recommended by the World Health Organization. In Sicily, the average is 52 percent while in Campania - the southern mainland region that includes Naples - it reaches 60 percent, Fazio noted.
Fazio said the incident also raised questions about the increasing intermingling of private doctors working in public hospitals.
In this case one of the duelling doctors was Salpietro's private gynecologist who cared for her during her pregnancy while the other was the doctor on duty at the hospital.
tsayaya
In this case one of the duelling doctors was Salpietro's private gynecologist who cared for her during her pregnancy while the other was the doctor on duty at the hospital.You can imagine giving prenatal treatment throughout pregnancy period and the other doctor suggests a diff method of delivery. Its quite difficult seeing that they never had enough time to seek for a third opinion, but fist fighting, iyoo, i wonder which medical school they are from? Maybe they should add conflict resolution as part medical studies.
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kolobe
and people think south africans are barbaric..these italians deserve hellReport Abuse
Mantsu
Tjoo!I'm just glad it was not here in Mzansi.
I don't want to be in their shoes. Can you imagine there you are in labour and Drs are having a boxing match, what are you supposed to do?
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Dukslight
Hi guys i am new member on this site i was not interested in registering for comments but you know pipyakor & kuku they have pushed me to do so co's they make me laugh all the time . chat to you soonReport Abuse
Zela
Doctors will have to learn to put the patient's health first over personal vendetta, some damages are irreversibleReport Abuse