Illustration in a hospital.

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G.

VARELA / 20 MINUTES

  • An anesthetist appears Thursday before the court of Pau for having caused in 2014 the death of a woman, asphyxiated during her delivery by cesarean section in the maternity of Orthez.

  • That day, she had started at six in the morning by drinking vodka.

  • She then intubated into the esophagus instead of the trachea, causing the patient to wake up and pain, during the operation under general anesthesia.

Rare case of drunkenness in the operating room.

A Belgian anesthesiologist appears Thursday and Friday before the Pau criminal court for having caused the death of a woman in 2014, asphyxiated during her delivery by cesarean section at the maternity hospital of Orthez (Pyrénées-Atlantiques).

This September 26, 2014, "like every day" from six in the morning, to "stop shaking", Helga Wauters begins by drinking vodka, mixed with water, then drinking again in the afternoon and in the evening. .

In front of the investigators, she will admit being "unable to go to the operating room without having drunk".

She had intubated the digestive tract instead of the respiratory tract

Six years later, the anesthesiologist must answer for the accidental death of a 28-year-old pregnant patient while on call day, she was under the influence of alcohol: Helga Wauters had intubated the digestive tract instead of the respiratory tract, without realising it.

Xynthia Hawke, British sales manager based on the Basque coast, died on December 30, 2014 from a lack of oxygen.

Her baby survived, with no after-effects.

For this “manslaughter”, the 51-year-old anesthesiologist - who has already served 2 months of pre-trial detention - risks 3 years of imprisonment.

Returned to live in Belgium, the fifty-year-old, who still suffers from alcoholism, will appear free under judicial supervision after several postponements of the trial due to the health crisis.

"That she can no longer exercise"

"A few days before, we were in a guest room, there was a swimming pool and Xynthia was doing her laps, as usual", says Yannick Balthazar, the father of her child, who will attend the trial alongside the parents of Xynthia, from Great Britain, and her sister.

“More than the penal sanction, they want others not to have to live with this misfortune and that it can no longer exercise”, declares their lawyer Me Philippe Courtois.

The anesthetist, hired a fortnight earlier, had administered an epidural to the young woman who had passed her term, then had gone out to have "a glass of rosé" with friends.

But the delivery becoming complicated, a cesarean section became necessary to take out the baby of 4.5 kg.

It was "Baghdad", summarizes a nurse from the block

Helga Wauters, who smelled of alcohol on her return according to her colleagues, then made her error in intubation, causing the patient to wake up and pain, in the middle of the operation under general anesthesia.

Then, she had used a manual balloon to ventilate her patient instead of the ventilator that she did not seem to know how to use, according to witnesses.

It was "Baghdad", summarizes a nurse from the block.

The nursing staff had to call the Samu who had discovered a patient in cardiac arrest.

In police custody on December 30, four days after the tragedy, the anesthetist presented 2.38 g of alcohol / l of blood.

If she conceded some responsibility, she also passed on to the caregivers and cited a malfunction of the ventilator.

"Her ability to question herself" questions justice, while while saying to herself "70% of her capacity", she felt she had "perfectly" done her job, according to the order for reference signed by the judge. instruction in May 2019.

Already fired for missing, drunk, an epidural

She claimed to have drifted into alcohol and professional troubles after a separation with her partner in 2005. Her career, strewn with repeated cures, has two convictions in 2010 and 2015 for drunk driving and two dismissals for serious misconduct in Belgium related to his blood alcohol level.

Dismissed in February 2013 from the Soignies hospital, she was fired a year later from that of Saint-Vith where, drunk, she twice missed an epidural.

Surprising fact: this hospital had provided in its contract the possibility of subjecting her to a breathalyzer at any time.

Nothing filters when she is hired at Orthez

But seven months later, nothing filters out when a recruitment firm hires her in "express" for the Labat d'Orthez clinic where she arrives on September 12.

In addition to the obstetrician, the Labat clinic and the Orthez hospital center, to which the clinic provided its anesthetists and its premises by virtue of an agreement, were for a time indicted before benefiting from a non- location.

"His background should have been checked, there was a breach," regrets the companion of the victim.

The doctor's lawyer, Me Antoine Vey, did not wish to speak.

Miscellaneous

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Health

Guingamp: Threatened with closure, maternity hospital should be extended

  • Maternity

  • Trial

  • Alcoholism

  • Justice

  • Aquitaine

  • Pau

  • Hospital