'In my opinion, he's an excellent doctor'

A doctor who performed an emergency caesarean section at Cavan General Hospital has this morning (Wednesday) told an inquiry how she discovered the mother’s womb had ruptured and the baby was in the abdomen, writes Liz Farsaci.

 

Dr Syeda Tahir, who worked as a registrar in obstetrics at the hospital between 2010 and 2013, was giving evidence at an ongoing inquiry into consultant obstetrician Dr Salah Aziz Ahmed.

Dr Aziz faces allegations of poor professional performance and professional misconduct relating to three women who gave birth at the hospital between November 2012 and April 2014.

The inquiry, which is taking place in Lucan, Co Dublin, heard yesterday (Tuesday) that mother Deirdre Clarke (37) who was under the care of Dr Aziz, gave birth to her baby boy by emergency section on the night of 5 June 2013.

The baby, named Roland, was in very poor condition at the time of birth, and needed resuscitation before being transferred to the Rotunda hospital.

Dr Tahir was working as the registrar on call as Ms Clarke was labouring on the night of June 5. A midwife contacted Dr Tahir, who was in another part of the hospital, and told her the baby’s heart-rate was decelerating.

Dr Tahir came to Ms Clarke and performed a vaginal examination. She found Ms Clarke fully dilated, but also fresh blood. The baby’s head could not be felt, which indicated that it was higher than it should be.

Based on this, Dr Tahir recognised that Ms Clarke might be suffering from a ruptured uterus, and decided an emergency caesarean section needed to be performed.

Ms Clarke was taken into theatre and Dr Tahir began the surgery at 11.34pm. She told the inquiry that, when she cut the incision, she found the baby already outside the uterus.

“I opened the skin. There was blood all over,” Dr Tahir told the inquiry. “The baby was in the tummy.”

Dr Tahir handed the baby, who was in very poor condition, to the paediatric team for resuscitation, and then delivered the placenta. Dr Aziz arrived at this juncture, and repaired Ms Clarke’s ruptured uterus.

Both Ms Clarke and Roland eventually made a full recovery.

Dr Tahir had strong words of praise for Dr Aziz, saying he was very well liked and admired amongst both colleagues and patients.

Referring to Dr Aziz, Dr Tahir said: “In my opinion, he’s an excellent doctor. He has trained us so well. I found him very professional and very good with patients.

“He is very, very respected amongst all his colleagues. He was always very fair and very kind to all of us.”