Paramedic who performed episiotomy on woman says he made ‘wrong’ clinical decision
He made the incision after an incorrect assessment and without anaesthetic, believing her baby was at risk, tribunal says.
A paramedic has been found guilty of professional misconduct after performing an episiotomy on a woman in labour.
Roy Vanderberg said he attempted the procedure because he thought he was running out of time to save the baby’s life.
In what he described as the “the most traumatic job” of his 35-year career, he and another advanced care paramedic had attended the woman who was giving birth on 27 June 2019 in a Queensland regional town.
However, he had mistaken the wrinkled skin of the baby’s head, which had crowned, for the umbilical cord, according to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
