Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this birth injury case and its proceedings.)
Sean’s father, William Taylor, was present in the delivery room and photographed the delivery. His deposition testimony, and his photographs, provide direct evidence that is in direct conflict with the events described by Dr. X. in her delivery notes.
Q. Okay. Did he come out straight, his head, or was he sideways?
A. He came out straight. After she cut and told her to push, then his head came out just like I’m looking up straight up at the ceiling. It came out like that and stopped.
Q. Then what happened after his head came out?
A. She grabbed him by the forehead and put her hands around the neck part.
Q. Then what happened after his head came out?
A. She grabbed him by the forehead and put her hands around the neck part.
Q. You said grabbed him on the forehead?
A. Put her thumb on the forehead, you know, like you grab a football. You would grab a head like this, like — I know you can’t put like this on here (indicating). She grabbed his head and had her thumb on the forehead and had her hand around his neck, and then she turned him.
Q. So one hand, then was on his head; and the other hand was on his neck?
A. Right.
Q. Which hand was on his head?
A. I can’t recall. I think it was the right hand. I think. I’m giving you an estimate.
Q. I don’t want you to guess.
A. Well, I can’t tell you for sure which hand was on his forehead.
Q. You do know that one hand was on his head and one hand was on his neck, correct?
A. That’s right. That’s correct.
Q. Okay. And you said that at some point, she turned him?
A. Yes; she turned him to the — to the left. She turned him to the left.
Q. Okay. Could you see — could you see her hands at this point, because you were still standing behind her towards the left?
A. Uh-huh (indicating yes).
Q. Where her hands outside the body, or had she put her hands inside her wife’s vagina?
A. She was holding her hands outside the body and around the neck area. She did not go inside the vagina.
Q. Okay. Do you know if at any point in time the doctor put her hands inside?
A. Not that I recall. I don’t think she did.
Q. Okay. What happened, then, after she went ahead and turned the baby to the left?
A. Then she turned him back to the right. And that’s when I heard the — the pop. I’ll just say the pop. That’s when I heard the pop. Me and my son — me and Ryan said, Oh, my God, you broke his neck, so we thought, because the pop was so loud.
Q. And what was Dr. Y.’s response to that?
A He’s fine.
The photographs confirm William Taylor’s testimony. They show Dr. X. grasping Sean’s head, outside the vagina.
As set forth in the declaration of plaintiffs’ obstetrics expert, Dr. William Z., what Mr. Taylor saw and documented was not the Woods corkscrew maneuver performed with the mother in the McRoberts position. (See Part 4 of 12.)
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.