Inquest into brain injury and death of child whose mother requested a c-section

This story appeared in The Australian this week, and while the inquest is clearly ongoing, and therefore the report is based on alleged claims, Pia Akerman writes how (my bold):

"Dishita Madamshetty died at the age of one month after being delivered in an emergency caesarean at Sunshine Hospital in Melbourne's western suburbs in 2007."

"An inquest investigating the circumstances of Dishita's birth yesterday heard that a midwife had left her mother, Shashi, alone for 25 minutes before returning to find the fetal heart rate monitor showing "non-reassuring" levels. Mrs Madamshetty was rushed into surgery and gave birth by caesarean about an hour later, but the baby was not breathing and had suffered multiple organ failures.

"Mrs Madamshetty told the inquest she had repeatedly asked for a caesarean delivery throughout her pregnancy. She had been worried about her baby's health as Dishita was conceived through IVF in India with the help of an egg donor.

"This baby was very precious to me and I believe that if she had been born by caesarean when requested by me that she would still be with us today," Mrs Madamshetty told the inquest. "Every month I had a checkup and I requested for the caesarean."

Read more here.