Traumatized after witnessing his wife’s cesarean section, he claims 604 million euros from the hospital

in collaboration with

Dr Odile Bagot (Gynecologist-obstetrician)

One billion Australian dollars, more than 600 million euros. This is the amount requested by Anil Koppula from the Royal Women’s Hospital, a health establishment located in the suburbs of Melbourne, for letting him attend his wife’s cesarean section. An event from which he would never have recovered.

A lack on the part of the hospital?

It was in 2018 that his wife was preparing to give birth to their child. The information reported by the media Insider does not indicate specific complications during childbirth, but a cesarean section is then planned. The staff would have, in the words of the complainant, “encouraged” the father-to-be to attend the procedure.

Despite the success of this, the man claims that the sight of his wife’s blood and organs would have led him to develop a “psychotic illness”. He thus maintains, several years later, that the hospital failed in its duty of care towards him by letting him attend this cesarean section. His condition would also have cost him his marriage.

A complaint deemed abusive

Real trauma (with very high compensation)? No one will really know. The complaint was dismissed on September 12 for “abuse of procedure”. The plaintiff’s psychological injury was not considered significant enough by the judges for him to be able to demand damages. “The degree of psychiatric harm resulting from the plaintiff’s alleged injury is too low,” concluded James Gorton, thehe judge in charge of the case. Anil Koppula will therefore not have recovered any dollars.

3 medical reasons that undermine the dad’s version

From a medical point of view, the decision seems entirely justified, according to Dr. Odile Bagot, gynecologist and member of our committee of experts. There are three reasons for this “traumatic act”:

• “First of all, the vision of a cesarean section is probably less traumatic than that of a normal childbirth, because most of the time we use an operating field to avoid being in direct contact with the incision. In addition, the vision of the organs is impossible, since they have not come out, it is a clean incision” she refutes.
• The second reason is a reason for consent, essential in medicine. “Assisting at a cesarean section is something that can be offered, but which is never imposed. I don’t see a team doing that” she continues
• Finally, the reason given by the complaining father is not credible. “According to the experts, the psychotic pathology as mentioned by this dad cannot be triggered by an event, however traumatic it may be. A psychotic pathology is a chronic mental illness. It is obvious that this person wanted to ask for money and/or to clear themselves of having a mental pathology.”

Caesarean section: can and should the dad attend?

In France, let us remember, the cesarean section rate, which allows delivery through an incision in the abdomen and uterus, is 20% according to figures from the Department of Research, Studies, evaluation and statistics (DREES). Among these cesarean deliveries, 32% are planned and 68% are carried out urgently.

But can or should the dad attend this? It’s all a question of choice in the context of a planned cesarean section according to our expert. “It’s quite recent, but in planned cesarean sections today we always ask the dad to attend, without ever imposing it. That remains a possibility if he so desires.”

On the other hand, in the event of an emergency cesarean section, the father is not invited “not because the scene would be visually traumatic, but because the situation can be specific, stressful, we prefer to avoid having the dad around, or who passes out” she concludes.