Serious lawsuit against a gynecologist at Sheba Hospital: Failed to follow hygiene instructions during surgery, resulting in woman developing acute infection leading to tragedy
The Center for Gynecology and Obstetrics at Sheba Hospital
Photography:
Coco
In an extraordinary medical malpractice lawsuit filed last week, allegations are made that because a senior gynecologist in the obstetrics and gynecology department at Sheba Government Hospital in Tel Hashomer did not wear a mask covering his mouth and nose and did not observe hygiene instructions, as required by the Ministry of Health. In a dangerous bacterium resulting in a severe infection.
As a result, the mother was in danger of death, the doctors had to amputate her uterus, and she has since suffered severe disabilities and injuries.
These allegations arise from a lawsuit filed last Thursday in the Central District Court against the Ministry of Health and Sheba Hospital.
The lawsuit is part of a case that received widespread media and public repercussions and occurred in December 2015, in which other very exceptional cases were investigated of three other mothers who were excommunicated at the time after being injured by an infection.
However, this is the first time a lawsuit has been filed in Israel alleging that a doctor who treated a patient infected him with a dangerous bacterium also because he did not wear a mask and did not observe the required rules of hygiene.
The same rules most of which are now mandatory for the general public because of the precautionary rules against contracting the corona virus.
The lawsuit was filed by attorney Shay Poiring, who specializes in representing victims of medical malpractice.
"Extremely unusual event"
The lawsuit filed for compensation is based on the opinion of Prof. Jihad Bishara, director of the Infectious Diseases Unit at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, on the testimony of the midwife herself, and based on the special hearings in the Knesset case, including findings from the Ministry of Health's internal examination and Hospital management.
Management described the affair as a "highly unusual event", found that the obstetrician and plaintiff had a complete match of the dangerous bacterium and noted that plaintiff's case was suspected of being infected with a bacterium that occurred due to hospitalization and hospital treatment.
According to the lawsuit, the 39-year-old mother became pregnant in 2015 and on December 6 arrived at Sheba Hospital for the birth and was transferred to the operating room, where she underwent epidural anesthesia under vacuum.
However, the mother did not know that the maternity ward in Sheba received a message from Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva that they had been forced to excise the uterus of a woman who had given birth earlier in Sheba.
Violent bacterium
The reason?
She was diagnosed with a violent bacterium such as Streptococcus A that is found on the skin and throat, but when it manages to penetrate internal tissues in the body, it can spread quickly and cause collapse, amputation and even death.
According to the lawsuit, the midwife did not even know that in order to prevent the infection network, a check was performed in Sheba, as required, in which the medical staff members involved in the treatment of the first mother were sampled, including her obstetrician, who also suffered from a sore throat.
However, according to the lawsuit, the doctor treated the plaintiff "with utter unreasonableness without maintaining the necessary basic rules of hygiene."
According to the lawsuit, the obstetrician in the operating room rescued healthy twin boys at birth using a vacuum device, and after the birth he began surgical suturing of deep and significant tears created in the mother during childbirth.
But "in the operating room, he performed both births and the suturing procedure without wearing a mask over his face, all in complete violation of the Ministry of Health's instructions.
"No wonder the plaintiff got infected"
"In his persistent and stubborn avoidance of wearing a mask, a committed, cheap, simple and effective operation, the doctor acted with utter irresponsibility, for he knew that in these circumstances there was a reasonable possibility that he was in fact the source of the first birth, and no wonder the plaintiff contracted the bacterium from the doctor. Four midwives who gave birth in Sheba underwent hysterectomy, although it was already known before the plaintiff's treatment that the bacterium broke out in the hospital, and even though it was feared that the source of the infection was one of the staff, even though the obstetrician himself was in the patients suspected of being infected. "In the throat - he continued to treat other patients, including the plaintiff, without maintaining the basic rules of hygiene," the lawsuit states.
The indictment also raises many serious allegations about the treatment of the mother after the birth, according to which for four days after the birth she repeatedly complained of severe abdominal pain, but "although the severe pain did not go away and worsened, the doctors informed the mother that she should be released home. And all this when during all the days of hospitalization, the hospital management and the doctors treating the ward were already aware of the infection of another mother in the same bacterium in the hospital. "
According to the lawsuit, after doctors refused to do so and released her to her home, she subsequently decided, and on her own initiative, to stay in the maternity ward at the hospital.
But there her condition continued to worsen, and after she was not examined by a doctor, and her pain worsened further, she was transferred to the maternity emergency room, where she was diagnosed with a severe and spreading infection.
The midwife was taken to the intensive care unit and the next day she was rushed to the operating room, where she was diagnosed with a common infection and her uterus was excised.
Since then she has been left with a severe disability and with many and irreversible injuries.
An external inspection was conducted
The affair was also discussed in a special Knesset debate and was then examined by the Ministry of Health, and in January 2016 Prof. Arnon Afek, then Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Health and today Deputy Director General of Sheba Hospital, then Director General of the Ministry of Health, Moshe Bar Siman Tov, There are also conclusions and lessons from the investigation of the affair that are in the stages of implementation at the hospital, as Prof. Itzik Kreis, then deputy director general of the hospital and now director general of Sheba, has already "promised" me.
Prof. Afek further wrote that "it is important to note the professional and immediate activity of the doctors at Sheba Hospital, whose doctors examined the cases, called the maternity ward and briefed them.
"I was very impressed by the sincerity and dedication of the director of the Women and Maternity Unit, Prof. Eyal Schiff (who then managed the unit, R.R.), who personally managed the event, with the assistance of Prof. Galia Rahav, the director of the Infectious Diseases Unit at Sheba."
The Sheba Medical Center stated: "In 2015, the described case occurred, which was immediately treated with a multidisciplinary vision. In addition, the Sheba Medical Center initiated an application to the Ministry of Health for an external, independent examination on its behalf. At the end of a comprehensive examination by the best experts, led by an office Health, it emerged that there was no fault in the conduct of the hospital.
Moreover, the fast, professional and dedicated functioning of the medical center was even praised.
The ultimate goal that has always been in front of our eyes is to save the patient's life. "