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."

Kaiser Permanente Doc kills baby and still has a job!

This is one of the worst stories I have ever read to be all honest. I am so tired of seeing and reading about children dying, being injured, families being torn apart and all that can come with hospital births. The article is really long so I am going to paste a few paragraphs but please read the whole story. You never know the truth about who you are trusting your and your babies life to.

"I've been telling these guys for years that he was going to kill someone,"
said Dr. Gilbert Moran, the former ob-gyn chief. "And no one would
listen"

So the Chief of the OB department reported it and the hospital STILL kept him on. What a shame that the safety of the patients didn't come first.

Late one April night, the first of Sarah Valenzuela's twins arrived with little trouble, but the second stayed put.
Though the baby was not in distress, Kaiser Permanente perinatologist Hamid Safari attached a vacuum extractor to the boy's head to draw him out. Again and again he tugged, but still the baby would not come.

OK if that baby wasn't distressed why not let him come on his own. Its perfectly OK to let them come on their own. It can take minutes or hours. I have even seen a day go by between twins. If the baby was OK he should have just let nature do its awesome work!

It took 90 minutes and six tries -- the last with Safari on his knees, pulling. Horrified staffers -- and the boy's father -- looked on as baby Devin finally emerged. His skin was a bloodless white, his neck elongated and floppy.
His spinal cord had been severed.

OMG! I feel so badly for those poor parents! For a grown man to use all his force on that tiny baby what the hell did that OB think was gonna happen!

Safari lashed out at a nurse. "What did you do to that baby? I gave you a good baby," he said, according to a complaint letter the nurse sent to her union representative.

Yeah ok blame the nurse. That poor women was probably horrified at what she had just seen! And then for him to try and blame her! Uggg I feel sick.

Over the years, doctors and nurses repeatedly had complained to higher-ups -- including Kaiser's top medical officer in Northern and Central California -- about problems they saw in Safari's skills and behavior, according to interviews and documents.
This is a story not just of tragic medical outcomes, but of a health plan that did not prevent them.

Just tragic this little boys life could have been spared had the administrators listened to the people who watched his work everyday.
There is so much more to this story that I could go on and on about but I want you to read if for yourself. Make your own conclusion. Is this the kind of system that our women and children should be exposed to. Until we stand up and demand that the treatment of pregnant women and infants stops there will be more stories like this, more babies dying and more mothers going home with no babies or worse babies and kids living a life without their mother.
To see the full story follow the link and on the right side of the page click the print button to get the full text version.
LA Times story

The legality of VBAC

Ok so I am getting much better at researching things lol I was ok at it in the beginning now I am getting better and better with a little more free time to look through the pages and pages that come up when you search. Anyway I stumbled across this and thought it was a great read on the "truth" about why OB's don't like to do VBAC and why the ACOG has such an interest in it. Not for the better of the patient but for the better of the OB. Here is the intro!

The percentage of births that are cesarean is at an all time high in the United States while the rate for a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) is at an all time low. Legal, medical and economic factors amalgamate to influence these rates. The recommendations of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) have also impacted the VBAC and cesarean rates. The ACOG’s recommendations are an example of defensive medicine because the recommendations are not based on scientific evidence; they were imposed solely to prevent obstetrician/gynecologists from medical malpractice lawsuits. As a result, many pregnant women are restricted in choosing a delivery method and are subjected to unnecessary cesarean sections. This paper will examine the legal, medical and economic factors concerning VBACs and cesarean sections. Next, this paper will explore why a woman with a cesarean cannot deliver vaginally in a subsequent pregnancy. Finally, this paper will discuss the ACOG’s recommendations and explain why they constitute a defensive medicine procedure.

And this is all too true. All the scare tactics they use to discourage VBAC is soley because of malpractice and fear of law suits not based on the evidence. The only thing I can say so far that I don't like was this reference:

Eliminating VBACs may result in attempting a VBAC at home or visiting a birthing center that cannot perform an emergency cesarean.[121] Additionally, women trying to avoid another cesarean “have endangered themselves and their babies by staying at home in labor – or even staying in the hospital parking lot – until the last minute.”[122]

VBACing at home is just as safe if not safer then VBACing in a hospital. More one on one care that can catch the signs of a rupture before it happens instead of a few nurses juggling a bunch of patients and soley relying on a machine to tell them the well being of the mom and baby, able to be relaxed and move and eat as needed to keep labor progressing and not having 20 people come in during your labor to only shove their fingers in your vagina so less chance of infection. Over all its so refreshing to see this written by someone who has no ties to the VBAC controversy. Its about time!