Alcoholic anaesthetist ‘killed mum in botched caesarean’
Doctor admits having vodka for breakfast every day for 10 years
AN alcoholic anaesthetist who drank vodka for breakfast killed a British mother when she botched a caesarean, a French court heard.
Helga Wauters, 51, was at least four times over the drink-drive limit when she entered the operating theatre to deliver Xynthia Hawke’s baby in 2014.
She had performed an epidural on Miss Hawke, 28, but complications appeared and she required an emergency C-section.
When Wauters, from Belgium, returned to the room, she had alcohol on her breath, according to witnesses.
Investigators said Wauters, who was less than two weeks into the job, put a tube down Miss Hawke’s oesophagus instead of her windpipe.
Miss Hawke, from North Petherton, Somerset, died four days later from cardiac arrest. Her baby survived.
Wauters admitted that she had started her day drinking vodka with water ‘every day’ for ten years and that she had had a ‘glass of rose’ wine between the operations on Miss Hawke.
Yesterday at a court in Pau, south-west France, Wauters said: ‘ I carry the death of Xynthia Hawke with me every minute. I accept my responsibility, but I don’t deserve to go to prison.’
Miss Hawke’s partner, Frenchman Yannick Balthazar, was among family members in court yesterday for the two-day hearing. He is now raising their son, Isaac.
Miss Hawke’s father, Fraser, also present, said: ‘We will be strong.’
The Hawke f amily l awyer Philippe Courtois said: ‘It’s going to be hard for them. They are going to hear things that they didn’t know, or preferred not to know, about what emerged during the investigation.’ The horrifying mistake at the Orthez maternity hospital effectively l eft Miss Hawke brain dead and she died after falling into a coma.
In a statement to the court Wauters said: ‘I don’t want to make myself the victim, but I was overwhelmed by this addiction that I still cannot control despite all my efforts.’
Wauters admitted carrying a bottle of vodka mixed with water in her pocket at all times while a search of her home had found numerous empty spirit bottles. During Miss Hawke’s caesarean Wauters administered the first dose of anaesthetic and then left before complications arose.
When Wauters returned to theatre colleagues said her breath smelled heavily of alcohol.
However, she claimed to have been ‘70 per cent in control’ of her actions and ‘not drunk’.
Wauters also maintained the rest of the operating team had made mistakes and a respirator they had been using was faulty.
When she was arrested on the day of the operation the alcohol content in Wauters’s blood was equivalent to almost ten glasses of wine – more than four times the French drink-drive limit.
The court also heard how Wauters was sacked by a Belgian hospital in 2013 over an error made during a caesarean because of her drinking.
In July 2015, just ten months after Miss Hawke’s death, Wauters was arrested for drink-driving.
The maternity clinic and the lead gynaecologist were initially charged over Miss Hawke’s death but those cases have since been dropped.
Wauters faces a maximum of three years imprisonment if convicted of manslaughter and a fine of almost £70,000.
Miss Hawke, a recruiter for businesses looking for multilingual employees, grew up in Somerset and went on holidays in France as a child. She later moved to Paris to study at the University of London Institute.
‘70 per cent in control’