Three years in prison.
This is what the Pau public prosecutor's office has just claimed against Helga Wauters, a Belgian fifty-year-old tried for “aggravated manslaughter” on October 8 and 9.
The anesthesiologist faces five years in prison;
the judgment of the Criminal Court of Pau should be reserved this evening, at the end of the hearing.
Read also: Pau: an alcoholic anesthetist tried for the death of a patient who had just given birth
In September 2014, during a call at the Labat clinic, located in Orthez (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), the anesthesiologist arrived alcoholic at the birth of a young Englishwoman of 28 years, Xynthia Hawke.
The operation had gone awry and the patient died a few days later.
Her baby could have been saved.
A bottle of water and vodka
During the investigation that followed this tragedy, it emerged that Helga Wauters had already been dismissed from several Belgian hospitals due to her alcoholism.
She had been drinking every day for several years, and going to work with a small bottle containing a mixture of water and vodka.
To read also: Drama in the maternity of Orthez: the anesthesiologist was suffering from chronic alcoholism
On September 26, 2014, the day of the tragedy, she had drunk in the morning, at noon, in the early evening, then at an aperitif with friends, before going to take care of Xynthia Hawke.
In the OR, the Belgian had multiplied the medical faults, intubating his patient in the esophagus instead of the trachea and remaining without reaction in the face of the cardiac arrest of the young woman.
