After deadly hotel birth experienced doctor is to jail

BGH also considers behavior as manslaughter instead of negligent homicide
(Jur). A doctor and midwife who, despite considerable complications, had been held in a hotel for a "natural birth" must be imprisoned for six years and nine months. With a decision announced on Friday, June 10, 2016, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe confirmed a corresponding judgment of the District Court of Dortmund regarding "Manslaughter by omission" (Ref .: 4 StR 428/15).

Such a conviction for manslaughter is unusual. The now 62-year-old was regarded as an experienced doctor and midwife who accompanies births at home or in their practice. Here, however, the doctor knew about the complications of the lack of oxygen in the embryo and still adhered to the "home birth" in the hotel. As a result, the threshold of "deliberate negligence" to "manslaughter by omission" exceeded, said the district court in his now confirmed by the BGH judgment.

(Image: Sebastian Duda / fotolia.com)

For a "natural childbirth" despite the pelvic situation, a German married couple had come specially from Latvia to Unna. The contractions started there in the hotel in the early morning. Because the amniotic sac also burst, the couple could not come to the practice. Nevertheless, the now 62-year-old doctor came to the hotel only twelve hours after onset of labor. There she stated twice that the child's excrement, the so-called child's vomit, had already come out of the birth canal. The birth process came to a standstill.

Nevertheless, the now 62-year-old stuck to a "home birth". Only after a total of about 18 hours, the later named Greta was born and died immediately after birth. The summoned emergency doctor not only issued a death certificate, but also notified the police.

The pertinent guidelines recommend pelvic position for birth in a clinic so that, if necessary, a caesarian section can be made quickly. The District Court of Dortmund did not complain that the experienced doctor and midwife nevertheless tried a "home birth" in the hotel, but that she despite the complications and the obvious risks for them held on to it.

According to the court's opinion, the baby could have been born healthy by Caesarean section if the mother had been hospitalized four hours before the birth. Even one and a half hours before the child would have survived, but with lasting damage.

This justified rating as manslaughter is due to the long imprisonment. The district court of Dortmund sentenced the doctor and midwife on 1 October 2014 also to a lifelong professional ban. She has to pay the parents a compensation of 50,000 euros and also pay compensation for psychological damage and higher health insurance contributions.

By order of 11 May 2011, the BGH rejected the revision of the doctor as unfounded, the verdict in Dortmund is thus final. mwo / fle