Baby died after complications at birth: investigations into two doctors and a midwife

The public prosecutor’s office in Wels is investigating three employees of the Klinikum Vöcklabruck (Upper Austria) for negligent homicide. It is about the death of a boy who suffered severe brain damage on December 6, 2021 during the birth – which was ultimately carried out by caesarean section (section). Eight days later, on December 14, the boy’s parents, who live near the Salzburg border, decided to turn off the machines.

Attorney Stefan Rieder from Salzburg, who represents the severely traumatized parents of the deceased Lukas, confirmed the terrible tragedy that had happened in December of the previous year to the SN on Saturday morning.

According to the Wels public prosecutor’s office, an expert opinion from the obstetrics department was obtained on the question of whether treatment errors (medical or other breaches of care) occurred in connection with the caesarean section that was ultimately performed on the boy’s mother. During the emergency C-section that was finally carried out – the mother had previously decided in favor of a spontaneous birth (vaginal birth) – a rupture of the uterus (tear of the uterus) had occurred. According to victim attorney Rieder, a supplementary statement on the report is still pending.

The expertise available so far from a renowned gynecologist at Innsbruck University Hospital states that “between November 29, 2021 (discussion regarding the forthcoming birth) and December 6, 2021, a series of (medical, note) decisions and actions were taken which did not meet the expected standard and which resulted in the rupture of the uterus and the death of the child”.

At the same time as the preliminary investigation, the victims’ lawyer brought a civil lawsuit against the hospital

Regardless of the criminal investigations against the Salzkammergut Clinic in Vöcklabruck, the Salzburg lawyer has filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of the boy’s parents. In it, he demands 80,000 euros in damages from the clinic and the declaration that the defendant “is liable to the plaintiffs (parents) for all future, currently unforeseeable consequences of the faulty birth management on the occasion of the birth of Lukas (…)”.

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