Anesthetist Who Drinks Before Work 'To Stop Hands From Trembling' Jailed For Botched Cesarean

A Belgian anesthetist has been found guilty of manslaughter over the death of a 28-year-old British woman during an emergency cesarean operation. A French court Thursday ordered Helga Wauters, 51, to three years in jail and banned her from practicing medicine, BBC reported.

The patient, Xynthia Hawke, died in Orthez hospital near Pau, southwestern France in September 2014 after an emergency cesarean operation. The court found that Wauters had been under the influence of alcohol during the procedure.

Wauters reportedly pushed a breathing tube into Hawke’s esophagus instead of her windpipe. She also used an oxygen mask instead of a ventilator. The court also heard that Wauters had failed to react even when Hawke went into cardiac arrest, reported The Guardian.

Hawke, who had been admitted to the hospital for delivery, was initially given an epidural by Wauters. She later developed complications and had to undergo an emergency cesarean operation. A colleague admitted that Wauters’ breath had smelled of alcohol when she was called back to the hospital for the emergency procedure.

According to a nurse, who was on duty during the time of the incident, the scene was like a war zone. She disclosed that Hawke had woken up during the procedure. The patient began vomiting, complained of severe pain and ripped out her tubes. Soon her oxygen levels dropped and the staff noticed that the patient turned blue.

The procedure left Hawke in an irreversible coma, and she died four days later. Her baby boy was born healthy on Sept. 26, 2014. According to the witnesses, there was a bruise in Hawke’s esophagus. Vomit was also present in the oxygen tube.

Wauters admitted that she had started her day with a mix of vodka and water, "like every day" for the past 10 years. The medics at the hospital reported that Wauters had been incapable of reacting even when alarms sounded in the operating theater.

When Wauters was taken into custody, the alcohol content in her blood was 2.38 grams per liter or the equivalent of around 10 glasses of wine, the police found. Wauters told the investigators that she needed to drink before work to "stop her hands from trembling."

Wauters denied being solely responsible for Hawke’s death. She insisted that other staff were also to blame and claimed that the ventilator was faulty at the time of the procedure. The investigators later proved that her claim was false.

Wauters moved to France after getting fired from her job in a Belgium hospital for being under the influence of alcohol. She had only been with the hospital for two weeks at the time of the incident. The investigators also found that the recruitment company had not verified her credentials or disciplinary records.

"I accept that this addiction is inconsistent with the exercise of my profession and I should not have risked the lives of my patients," Wauters told the court in an earlier hearing.

The court ordered her to pay almost $1.65 million in damages to Hawke's family. Wauters was not present at the court during the ruling.

"Justice has set an example for this type of doctor who, in my eyes, is not a doctor," Hawke’s partner Yannick Balthazar said.