Chula Vista Labor and Delivery Doctor Placed on Probation for Gross Negligence

A Chula Vista labor and delivery doctor was placed on medical probation for gross negligence in February. According to a signed stipulated settlement and disciplinary order, the doctor was placed on probation for 35 months. The medical board alleged that the doctor was negligent in the medical treatment of three pregnant women including one stillbirth and infants suffering serious injuries from 2017 to 2019.

As a condition of the medical probation, the doctor is required to hire a medical board-approved “monitor” who will oversee the medical practice’s operations including medical care and billing. The monitor is prohibited from having any prior relationship with the doctor or his medical practice.

The doctor will also be required to complete 40 hours of education “aimed at correcting any areas of deficient practice” and to undergo ethics training. The medical board will prohibit the doctor from supervising physician assistants or advanced practice nurses.

Gross negligence

 The doctor’s license was suspended after he was accused of three instances of medical negligence. The first alleged act of medical negligence occurred in August 2017. A 24-year-old woman, referred to as Patient B, was admitted to the hospital for a check-up months after irregularities in her pregnancy had been detected. According to the medical board, the doctor recorded high blood pressure in the mother and “decreased fetal heart variability as well as concerning delta heart rate decelerations.” But instead of keeping the woman for evaluation, the medical board says the doctor gave the woman medication and ordered her discharge from the hospital. The following day, a follow-up ultrasound was performed. The ultrasound determined that the baby had died.

In a second accusation against the doctor involved a cesarean section performed in 2017. According to the medical board’s investigation, the baby suffered numerous lacerations during the c-section that the doctor performed. The medical board determined that the doctor was negligent in his treatment “by performing one or more medical interventions in a manner resulting in multiple lacerations or abrasions to the patient’s child.

A third accusation against the doctor occurred to a patient known as Patient A in January 2019. According to the allegations, the doctor “changed Patient A’s estimated due date to approximately three weeks prior to the initial due date.” On February 18, 2019, a day before the woman’s new estimated due date, the patient arrived at the hospital and the doctor began to induce labor. According to the medical board, the doctor received the 11-week ultrasound which had the actual due date set for March 8, 2019, more than two weeks later. The doctor continued to deliver the baby who was born the following day. The infant was admitted to the hospital’s newborn ICU for respiratory distress and later transferred to another facility for continued care.

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Source:

cbs8.com/article/news/local/chula-vista-doctor-on-medical-probation/509-e2a704ae-8656-4ff9-a28a-c408be82485f