The parents of a Connecticut infant who died exactly 24 hours after birth are suing a doctor for using a suction 15 times during the delivery.
Danielle Mackenzie and Fabrice Diaz claim in their lawsuit that Dr. Jay Matut, an OB/GYN at Greenwich Hospital, used a vacuum to deliver their baby, Alexander M. Diaz, who died on February 18.
According to the lawsuit, the events leading up to Mackenzie’s death began on February 17, when she went into labor at 40 weeks and 3 days pregnant. At 8:10 p.m., she was fully dilated and told to begin pushing. After roughly an hour and 40 minutes of pushing, Matut felt he wanted to speed up the delivery and suggested that the woman have a vacuum-assisted delivery, according to court filings.
Matut applied and released the vacuum to the infant’s head 12 times over 30 minutes, according to the lawsuit. At 10:14 p.m., the mother was urged to push herself. The lawsuit claims that after 36 minutes of pushing, Dr. Matut reapplied and released the vacuum at least three times before performing an episiotomy on the mother and delivering the baby at 10:58 p.m.
The court filings describe the infant’s condition upon birth. He did not cry, was limp, and had a bloated head. He was immediately sent to the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit in severe condition.
When his health didn’t improve, he was moved to Yale New Haven Hospital’s newborn intensive care unit, where he died the next night at 10:58 p.m., according to the lawsuit. His death resulted from hemorrhagic hypovolemic shock induced by a huge subgaleal hematoma.
Matut, according to the court papers, “acted with a reckless and conscious disregard of the just rights and safety of the infant-plaintiff decedent, in a manner that constituted an extreme departure from ordinary care and in a situation where a high degree of danger was apparent under all of the circumstances then and there present.”
The lawsuit accuses Greenwich Hospital, Yale New Haven Health, Summit Health, and Matut of negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and recklessness for inappropriately using the vacuum, failing to abandon the device, using it for more than 15 minutes, failing to recommend a cesarean section, and ignoring the mother’s request for a c-section following a failed vacuum delivery, among other things.
“Greenwich Hospital is aware of this lawsuit and remains committed to providing the safest and highest quality of care possible,” a hospital spokeswoman said in a statement, according to the Hartford Courant. “While we are unable to comment on pending litigation, we have offered our deepest condolences to the family.”