A mother who had her baby’s head ripped off during childbirth “can’t sleep” when she wakes up “thinking she hears a scream,” her sister has revealed.
Ranielly Santos, 34, was going into labor at the Hospital das Clinicas da UFMG, in the Santa Efigenia neighborhood of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, when a doctor reportedly climbed onto her stomach and pulled off her baby’s head.
Ms Santos and her husband Victor da Silva, who watched the birth on May 1, say the girl was alive when she emerged.
Ms. Santos filed a complaint with the police two days after the failed delivery of her child. Police say they are now investigating the case for possible manslaughter.
But the hospital has since claimed the little girl would have died anyway due to a lung abnormality. The family denies ever getting this information from the hospital.
Victor da Silva (left) and his wife, Ranielly Santos (right) filed the complaint with the police two days after the failed delivery of her child
Ms Santos (pictured), and her husband who watched the birth earlier this month on May 1, say the girl was alive when she emerged
Ms Santos’ sister, Aryane Santos, 32, described the horrific events Otempo: ‘Mentally I don’t even have the words to describe it. My sister only knows how to cry. She can’t sleep.
When she succeeds, she wakes up with a start, thinking she hears a scream.
My sister’s breast is dripping with milk. When she leaves she cries, she says it’s the girl who wants to be breastfed.
“She is also very swollen and water is coming out of her pores. He can barely walk because of the 60 stitches. Her breast is giving milk, and this is very sad, it’s a trigger,” the sister continues. ‘We are investigating ways to dry the milk so that it hurts less.’
The hospital has since claimed the baby would not have survived anyway because she had “a lung malformation incompatible with life.” But the two parents say they never revived this information from the labor unit.
Hospital ward management said the child’s birth was premature at 30 weeks, claiming the mother had a deteriorating clinical condition with “elevated blood pressure and generalized oedema.”
“Because of the severity of the mother’s condition and fetal viability [inability of the fetus to survive outside the womb]’The medical staff opted for inducing childbirth’, according to the management Otempo.
The hospital management confirmed that “the team has made every effort to ensure the pregnant woman’s life and is committed to clarifying all facts transparently and deftly.”
A doctor is under investigation after allegedly ripping off a baby’s head during childbirth at Brazil’s Hospital das Clinicas da UFMG (pictured), as a horrified father watched
Ranielly Santos, the baby’s mother, filed a police complaint two days after her child’s failed delivery. In the photo: the Santa Efigenia neighborhood in Belo Horizonte
According to the file, Ms. Santos said she was originally hospitalized prematurely because she had high blood pressure. Because of this, she was admitted to the health ward, where she opted for an artificial birth.
During the birth, the midwife, who has not been named, reportedly called the girl’s father to closely monitor the procedure.
The father, who watched his baby’s birth with Ms. Santos’ mother, says he even saw his daughter blink and move her mouth, which he said was evidence that the girl was alive.
However, in a tragic turn of events, according to the family’s report to police, the doctor climbed onto the mother’s stomach while trying to pull the girl out, and ripped off the child’s head.
The police report also says that the family, from Ribeirao das Neves, a municipality on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte, has received an apology from the doctor for what happened during the delivery of the baby.
They say they were later approached by a social worker at the hospital who said the facility would cover all the costs of the baby’s funeral.
But the offer was only valid if they agreed to sign documents stating that “the autopsy had already been performed at the hospital,” that “the child’s body had already been examined,” and that “the body would not be forwarded to the Legal Medical Institute (IML)’ for further analysis.
The parents refused to sign the paperwork and later filed a complaint with the police, after which the baby’s remains were examined at the IML, according to the family’s lawyer, Jennifer Valente.
The hospital has said that before Itatiaia that it “deeply regrets” the case and said they would “make every effort to investigate the facts” pending the autopsy report.