Swedish doc tore baby's windpipe during delivery

The delivery of a baby at a Stockholm hospital turned into a struggle of life and death when the specialist doctor pulled and tugged to get the baby out, causing the baby to have multiple brain haemorrhages and a torn windpipe.

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“When the baby crowned she gripped it, yanked and pulled. I was shocked but understood something was wrong. You can’t pull a baby neck like that,” father Christopher Rung Svensson said to daily Dagens Nyheter (DN).

The birthing experience of Svensson and partner Nelma de Cruz did not turn out the way they had expected.

After a drawn out ordeal, de Cruz was too weak to push and a specialist was called. She decided that the baby would be delivered with a vacuum extractor.

As soon as the head was out, the stunned father witnessed how the specialist took hold of the newborn and proceeded to pull violently at the baby’s neck.

“I thought ‘no neck can take that much force’," said Rung Svensson to daily Aftonbladet.

As soon as baby Felicia was delivered, the specialist rushed out of the room and the couple didn’t see her again until much later.

According to Rung Svensson, the rest of the staff present were as shocked as he and his partner. Shortly after it was discovered that Felicia was experiencing breathing difficulties.

They tried to intubate but Felicia’s injuries made it impossible. Instead, other parts of her body became grotesquely inflated.

“She tried to cry, but her torn vocal cords made it impossible. In the end she turned blue," Rung Svensson told DN.

After several attempts to resuscitate Felicia she was finally brought by ambulance to the ECMO-unit at another Stockholm hospital, where they were able to oxygenize her blood through an artificial lung.

It was later discovered that apart from her torn windpipe she had suffered multiple brain haemorrhages. The family had to stay in hospital for a month.

The staff at Danderyd's hospital in Stockholm have reported the case to the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) according to Sweden's Lex Maria laws, the informal name used to refer to regulations governing the reporting of injuries or incidents in the Swedish health care system.

The specialist has already resigned from the hospital where she had been working for eleven years.

It is too early to say what this will mean for baby Felicia in the future.

“Of course we are very worried. It was a terrible trauma for her and we have no idea how much the lack of oxygen and haemorrhages may have affected her, but everything is healing remarkably well so we are hoping for the best,” Rung Svensson told DN.

So far the new parents are just enjoying having their baby home.

“I am just really pleased it has turned out okay, that she is home and seems to be doing alright,” said de Cruz to Aftonbladet.