Share

Tweet

Share

Share

Email

Comments

Olivia Marie Coats lived for five days after her parents allege a forceps delivery crushed her little skull and caused brain death. Now, they have launched a Facebook campaign to stop the use of forceps in all births.

Allen Coats, 25, and his fiancee Rachel Melancon, 24, say they will sue their obstetrician, Dr. George T. Backardjiev, but not The Medical Center of Southeast Texas, where their daughter was born on Dec. 28. The baby was transferred that day to Houston’s Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital, which confirmed the baby died on Jan. 2.

“We’re not mad at hospital, this is not their fault. It is one man’s fault,” Angie Coats, the baby’s grandmother told ABCNews.com. “We only want justice for Olivia; we want the person responsible, which is the doctor. We don’t want the hospital being shunned. The hospital is great. The nurses were wonderful. It’s not their fault.”

Angie Coats said the young parents were devastated by the loss. She said the parents had repeatedly asked the doctor to perform a cesarean in advance of the Christmas Day due date because of the large size of the baby, but he refused.

Olivia was ultimately delivered by emergency C-section, according to the family, but they allege it was too late. “My son said, ‘I don’t think my baby is alive.’ She was not breathing and she never cried,” said Angie Coats.

She said the medical staff told the family the baby was alive and would be transferred to Hermann Hospital.

But once the family arrived at Hermann, they allege that doctors told them Olivia was not breathing on her own and had suffered “numerous skull fractures.”

Olivia’s parents decided to donate the baby’s heart valve to save another baby and her tissue behind her legs and knees was donated for skin grafts. “Something good will come of this,” said Coats.

Source: ABC News