Wednesday, January 30, 2008

More on Kiaser OB who killed a baby.

Ok LA Times took down the artical I added to my post about this so I am going to copy a story from another web site but the LA Times artical was longer and had more info. But you will still get the details. The one big thing that I wished had been included in this story was the baby whose spinal cord was severed decribed the force he was using over a period of time and how once he saw the baby was dead he tried blaming the nure and even went to the extent of telling them what to put in the report for medicaid that said the baby was born alive.

A Kaiser Permanente perinatologist has been the subject of numerous staff and patient complaints and his actions may have contributed to terrible medical outcomes, a newspaper has reported.
According to a Los Angeles Times investigation published Tuesday, Dr. Hamid Safari has been under scrutiny for several years and at least one review board has deemed that his conduct needs improvement.
Several instances of possibly inadequate care were cited by the newspaper, including a 2005 delivery at Kaiser's Fresno hospital in which Safari pulled so hard on the head of a baby with a vacuum extractor that the baby's spinal cord was severed and it died.
Kaiser now requires Safari to be monitored by another physician or nurse during deliveries and he is no longer allowed to perform vaginal deliveries.
In September, the state medical board accused Safari of gross negligence, seeking to revoke or suspend his license.
Safari's attorney Stephen D. Schear called the accusations "completely unwarranted."
"If you're doing thousands of high-risk deliveries over the years, it's almost inevitable that there's going to be some unfortunate cases where children die, where things don't go right," Schear said.
Another complaint centers around allegations that Safari resisted a mother's request for a Caesarean section even though the baby was likely suffering from a reduced oxygen supply. The baby girl died before she was 10 months old.
The coroner attributed her death to chronic respiratory diseases, but did not address if these were related to birth trauma.
The mother in that case filed an arbitration claim against Safari that was settled for an undisclosed sum.
Doctors and nurses have made repeated complaints to higher-ups at Kaiser about possible problems with Safari's skills and behavior, according to a Times review of interviews and documents.
The health care provider was in July fined $3 million for its handling of complaints and physician errors. Officials told the Times that Safari's actions played an important role in regulators' decision to investigate Kaiser.
One petition signed by eight of Safari's perinatal peers said they had lost confidence in Safari. But several other doctors signed a letter supporting him.
Kaiser did not let senior officials talk to the Times for its story and warned staffers at Kaiser Fresno not to speak with the newspaper.
In a statement, hospital administrator Susan Ryan said Kaiser was "committed to ensuring the safety of our patients."

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Reading like a mad woman!

Hey all sorry I haven't posted anything new in a while I have been without Internet and hope to have it back soon and going to the library really only gives me enough time to check my email. In this time though I have not been wasting a minute. I have been reading like a mad woman and I am finding myself getting more empowered and getting more knowledge then I could have ever thought of. Here is a list of all the books I have read in the last month.
1. Spiritual Midwifery By Ina May Gaskins
2. Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth By Henci Goer
3. The VBAC companion By Korte, Diana.
4. Gentle Birth choices Video
5. The birth partner : everything you need to know to help a woman through childbirth By Penny Simkin.
6. Your pregnancy and Birth By The American College Of OB/GYN (Little note: Gag! Don't recommend this book at ALL!! It was the worst pregnancy and birth book I have ever read!)
And I just finished
7. Born In The USA By Marsden Wagner, M.D., M.S.
I am still reading Birthing from within and love it so far and some Lamaze books. I hope to be able to post tomorrow more about Born In The USA as is was such an eye opening book, and was very refreshing in that an OB!!! wrote it and is saying what we all have been saying about birth all along! That Midwives need to be the primary care provider in low risk pregnancies! Gotta love this OB and I never in my life thought I would say that!