An anaesthetist has gone on trial for manslaughter in France, accused of botching a caesarian after drinking that left a young British woman dead, reports The Guardian.
Xynthia Hawke, from Somerset, suffered a catastrophic cardiac arrest after the medic pushed a tube down her oesophagus and not her windpipe and then failed to realise her error despite Hawke vomiting and crying out in pain.
The baby, a boy, was delivered at 10.22pm on 26 September 2014, but Hawke was starved of oxygen for several minutes and left in an irreversible coma despite efforts by paramedics to save her. She died four days later having never regained consciousness or seen her child.
Helga Wauters, 53, was the on-call anaesthetist at Orthez maternity hospital, in south-west France, when it was decided Hawke, 28, who had wanted a natural birth, should undergo an emergency caesarian.
During the investigation, Wauters told police she had been drinking with friends before being called and asked to return to the clinic to assist with the operation.