Doctor barred for botching two births
Obstetrician ruled incompetent for failing to react quickly, but permitted to do other procedures
“Dr. Singh’s deficiencies in skill and judgment endangered the health of both mothers and newborn babies.” COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS “I am an experienced physician and I will not say anything because I am bound by secrecy from the College.” DR. PADAMJIT SINGH
An obstetrician from an Oshawa hospital is no longer permitted to deliver babies after botching two births, including one during which an infant’s skull was crushed and another where a newborn was asphyxiated.
However, Dr. Padamjit Singh will be allowed to continue performing other medical procedures, including biopsies and cyst removals, with a restricted medical licence.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario last month released the June 3 decision of its discipline committee, which ruled that Singh was incompetent.
“Dr. Singh’s deficiencies in skill and judgment endangered the health of both mothers and newborn babies,” the committee wrote in its decision involving a total of three cases.
Along with the two births, Singh botched a gynecological procedure. In that case, while removing an ovarian cyst, the doctor ran into trouble and the patient suffered major blood loss. The right ovary, which was benign, was removed.
In the case of the deliveries, it is not known whether the babies or mothers suffered permanent injury or died.
Lakeridge Health, the hospital where Singh continues to have “restricted courtesy” privileges, refused to comment on any details regarding the obstetrician’s practice.
Hospital spokesperson Aaron Lazarus would only say: “My understanding is there is a matter under litigation.”
He emphasized that Singh is not performing surgeries at the hospital because of restrictions it placed on her in 2009.
The cases before the college also took place no later than that year.
The obstetrician-gynecologist, who received her medical training in India, continues to see patients out of a medical building in Bowmanville.
Reached by telephone, she refused to discuss the college’s decision.
“I am an experienced physician and I will not say anything because I am bound by secrecy from the College,” she said.
The Star, however, made a formal request and obtained exhibits from the college that contain chilling details of the botched deliveries.
An “agreed statement of facts’ includes a 2009 letter to the college from the hospital then-chief of staff detailing concerns about Singh’s competency. It also contains a report by Dr. Elaine Herer, deputy chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, who reviewed Dr. Singh’s care for the college. Based on interviews that Herer relayed in her report, other doctors at Lakeridge Health felt Singh seized up during emergency deliveries and didn’t appear to know what she was doing. “There was a sense of panic in the room, (and) Dr. Singh froze during the emergency,” said a surgical assistant at the delivery of the newborn whose skull was fractured. The baby needed to be delivered by an emergency Caesarean section due to loss of a fetal heart rate, but Singh failed to grasp the urgency. In fact, Singh told the attending anesthesiologist that she had time to give another patient an elective epidural, Herer said in her report. Described as a “deer in the headlights,” Singh had difficulty delivering the baby, specifically its head. One attendee said that she believed the doctor placed a vacuum extractor on the baby’s shoulder in an attempt to remove it. Singh’s difficulties resulted in a delay in resuscitating the infant, Herer’s report states. The baby was transferred to the Hospital for Sick Children, where it was found to have multiple skull fractures, resulting in a number of hematomas, or areas of the brain where blood had pooled. So disturbed were anesthesiologists by Singh’s performance they refused to work with her anymore, says the report to the college and a letter from the hospital’s chief of anesthesia to the chief of obstetrics. Under restrictions placed on Singh by the college, she can still do “minor procedures” including D&Cs, IUDs, biopsies, and removal of polyps and cysts, but not those requiring intraabdominal surgery. Singh is also allowed to work two days a month at Lakeridge’s colposcopy clinic.
Dr. Tony Stone, the hospital’s chief of staff, said in an email the restrictions the college placed on Singh are identical to those the hospital placed on her back in 2009.
“Whenever an issue of competence is raised, we take it extremely seriously . . . We will always take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the safety of people in our care.”
In the second birth, a difficult delivery was so prolonged that the infant suffered asphyxia, or what is known as hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, meaning its brain was deprived of oxygen. The baby had to be resuscitated through intubation and, once again, was transferred to the Hospital for Sick Children.
In this case, Singh failed to examine the mother before surgery to ascertain the baby’s position in the birth canal or dislodge it, according to Herer’s report.