NEW MOM'S HORROR ORDEAL - SUIT
Claims forceps severed baby’s head
A Long Island obstetrician allegedly used forceps so aggressively during a delivery that he severed the infant’s head internally from his spine, court papers allege.
Megan Stirnweiss, 23, says her nightmare began when she went to Southampton Hospital in labor on Dec. 30 in a lastminute decision after her home delivery became too painful.
The Shirley woman told The Post that hospital staff set up a table “of what looked to be medieval torture devices” and that Dr. Pedro Segarra, 60, soon arrived and took over, wielding forceps.
“My mom said, ‘Wait. What are the risks [of using forceps]?’ ” Stirnweiss recalled.
Segarra replied, “Virtually nothing,” according to the Stirnweiss’ lawsuit, which was set to be filed in Suffolk County Supreme Court on Monday.
The doctor put forceps around the baby’s head and yanked, dragging Stirnweiss — who was holding onto the bars of her hospital bed — all the way down to the edge, court papers charge.
Then “he pulled the forceps that he had around the fetus’ head, lifting [Stirnweiss] off the bed by the forceps around the fetus’ head, and shook her vigorously until the baby was delivered at 2:56 a.m.,’’ the suit alleges.
The infant, whom Stirnweiss and her husband, Matthew, named Matthew Jacob, was limp and blue and never cried, the suit says.
The baby — who was “internally decapitated” — was whisked away, the papers state.
As for Stirnweiss, she “suffered disruption, dislocation, tearing and lacerations of her internal organs and structures,’’ her suit says.
She now “is in constant pain’’ and will “require reconstructive surgery,’’ the papers state.
Stirnweiss, a cook for the US Coast Guard, said she and her husband kept their baby alive on machines for seven days so this organs could be donated. A baby from Toronto, Canada, received Matthew’s lungs.
“He gave the ultimate gift of life,” she told The Post of her son.
Reached by phone, Segarra declined to comment.
Stirnweiss’ lawyer, Christine Coscia, said her client wants “accountability.”
“We never want to see this happen to anybody again,” Coscia said.
The use of forceps had been on the decline for decades but recently surged again amid concerns about the rise and risks of C-sections, according to a June article in Today’s Parent magazine.
But a study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal says the more frequent the use of forceps and “vacuum’’ de- vices, the higher the instance of “severe birth trauma’’ for firsttime mothers such as Stirnweiss.
Dr. Steven Goldstein, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at NYU Langone Medical Center who is not involved in the suit, told The Post, “This is a terrible case.
“This is very sad, but this is not necessarily indicative of the way that forceps can and should be used,’’ he said. “Some forceps are still very safe.”