A woman suing a Southern California hospital says she underwent a cesarean section without anesthesia.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the lawsuit filed last month claims an anesthesiologist didn’t immediately answer pages at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside last November, so the emergency operation was performed without him.
The lawsuit says Delfina Mota was more than 41 weeks pregnant when she was admitted and delivery became urgent after staff couldn’t detect a fetal heart rate.
The lawsuit says the 26-year-old passed out from the pain. She delivered a healthy baby girl.
Cali and I would like to thank my Family and Friends for standing by our side during this crazy delivery, we couldnt…
Posted by Delfina Mota on Tuesday, November 21, 2017
The woman was “crying and screaming at the top of her lungs, that she could feel everything that was happening, and was also pleading for help,” the lawsuit stated, according to the paper.
The lawsuit by Mota and her fiance names the hospital, surgeon and the anesthesiologist. It alleges medical malpractice and assault and battery.
“I heard the screams, the horrific screams,” 35-year-old Paul Iheanachor, the baby’s father, said on Aug. 2 to the Union-Tribune. “That’s when I realized they were cutting her without anesthesia.”
“I knew they were going to do an emergency C-section,” he said. “There was nothing they could have told me to prepare me for the screams that I heard and the feeling that I got when they started the surgery.”
“If somebody put a knife in your stomach and cut you open, and had their hands on your insides, and ripped your baby out, you know,” Iheanachor told NBC7. “I just tried to put myself in her shoes. Just tried to wrap my mind around how it would feel to basically be gutted like a fish.”
The hospital says it considers patient safety and quality its utmost priorities, but it can’t otherwise comment.
Tri-City Medical Center issued a statement to the Union-Tribune: “Patient safety and quality are the utmost priorities for Tri-City Medical Center and all of our partners. Tri-City Healthcare District cannot comment further on pending litigation.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report