C-Section Performed Without Anesthesia, Woman Passes Out From Pain, Lawsuit Claims

A woman sued a South California hospital for giving her an emergency caesarean section without anesthesia.

According to a lawsuit filed in San Diego County last month against the Tri-City Medical Center, the surgeon and the anesthesiologist, the woman was “crying and screaming at the top of her lungs, that she could feel everything that was happening, and was also pleading for help.”

Paul Iheanachor, the baby’s father said he was in the hallway outside the operating room when she was taken inside. He knew something was wrong when he heard horrific screams. “That’s when I realized they were cutting her without anesthesia,” he said Thursday.

“If somebody put a knife in your stomach and cut you open, and had their hands on your insides, and ripped your baby out, you know. I just tried to put myself in her shoes,” he said. “Just tried to wrap my mind around how it would feel to basically be gutted like a fish.”

Delphina Mota, 26, was more than 41 weeks pregnant when she and her fiancé headed to Tri-City Medical Center on Nov. 15, 2017. She was admitted to have her labor induced and delivery became urgent after her blood pressure dropped and staff couldn't detect a fetal heart rate. She passed out due to pain and gave birth to a healthy girl child.

“Patient safety and quality are the utmost priorities for Tri-City Medical Center and all of our partners. Tri-City Healthcare District cannot comment further on pending litigation,” the hospital said in a statement Friday morning.

“While we normally don’t comment on pending litigation, the patient’s public discussion of the care she received during her emergency C-section compels us to address this outrageous allegation. The patient was administered anesthesia prior to the surgery. We are pleased that the baby is ‘healthy’ and ‘happy’,” the hospital said in another statement on Friday night.

While recounting the incident Mota said the doctor kept saying “page him, keep paging him” then all of a sudden “I felt cutting on my stomach … a burning sensation,’ the San Diego Union Tribune reported.

"Once I felt it, I was just screaming like, 'Stop. I can feel it. I can feel it.' And after that, I'm pretty sure I passed out from the pain, It was something like out of a horror movie. You can't imagine. I would rather have delivered vaginally, with no medicine, than being cut with a knife," she told NBC7.

“I understand why they did it,” Mota said, referring to the concerns about her baby. “But this is a hospital… There should have been measures in place.” The baby is over seven months old now and is doing perfectly fine.

“I’ve been doing this for like 35 years. I am flabbergasted by it. I have never seen anything like it,” the couple’s attorney, Norman Finkelstein said, calling the incident “horrific.”

The lawsuit alleges negligent infliction of emotional distress, medical malpractice and loss of consortium. However, it does not lay out a specific monetary amount.