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A midwife has been charged with professional misconduct after an earlier investigation found she "manufactured" a medical record about a baby boy who was born dead.
Anket Leon Kesar was stillborn at Middlemore Hospital on August 8, 2005. He had died about 24 hours earlier from a blood clot behind the placenta, compromising his oxygen supply.
The South Auckland midwife who cared for Rizawana Hussein during the pregnancy and birth has been charged in the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal by the Health and Disability Commissioner's prosecutor Theo Baker.
"It relates to her documentation and also her care during the last 24 hours of labour," Ms Baker said yesterday.
The midwife said she was still registered and practising.
The baby's father, Davinder Singh, said he and his wife were pleased the case was progressing.
"But we are very worried that the midwife is still practising. We encourage others to come forward and approach the Health and Disability Commissioner if they face any issues."
Ms Baker said there were probably not sufficient grounds to ask the tribunal to suspend the midwife ahead of any hearing, the date of which had not yet been set. She had been referred to the Midwifery Council.
A spokeswoman for the council, however, said it would "await the outcome of the hearing before reconsidering the matter".
Commissioner Ron Paterson referred the case to Ms Baker after finding the midwife's care of Mrs Hussein was unsatisfactory and the midwife "manufactured" a partogram, a record of the labour, purportedly recording maternal and fetal heartbeats the day after the fetus had died.
Previously a lawyer contended to Mr Paterson's investigation that the midwife completed the partogram retrospectively to provide a full picture of events.
Mr Singh believes Anket would have survived, had the midwife requested a caesarean delivery. when Mrs Hussein was briefly in hospital two days before the stillbirth.
But Mr Paterson said: "It is very hard to say whether the baby would have survived if ... [the blood clot] had occurred in hospital."
The midwife denies causing the death. Her lawyer, Kathryn Beck, said it was too soon after the laying of the charge for her to make any substantive comment.
