The moment your baby comes into the world is supposed to be one of the happiest moments of your life. But for one mother, labor was a nightmare because of the actions of her medical support team.
When Alex Sims’ doctor arrived to deliver her baby at a Las Vegas hospital, she could tell something was off. But in that vulnerable moment, women don’t always feel like they have a lot of power.
Sims’ regular obstetrician was on vacation, so she got the on-call doctor instead. Little did she know that Dr. Frank DeLee had allegedly arrived at the hospital straight from happy hour!
Once Sims’ mother Sheree got a whiff of alcohol on the doctor’s breath, she took out her phone and started filming the scene. And it’s a good thing she did, because both DeLee and the nurses who didn’t put a stop to his behavior are facing a lawsuit.
Sheree told KTNV that she even said “Oh, he smells like alcohol.” That’s when DeLee and his nurses began to talk about how he had just left the bar.
“Wasn’t that many people in the bar when I left,” he told one of the nurses.
“I’m sorry. Did you waste a drink?” she asked.
Then the staff began to joke about how the doctor enjoyed tequila – not exactly what you want to hear when you’re about to give birth!
This was all caught on video.
Sims said one of the nurses even commented that DeLee had “been at happy hour since he left my C-section” earlier in the day.
To add to the insult, DeLee was not only wearing Bermuda shorts under his hospital gown, but he was also completely barefoot!
Sadly, that’s not the worst part.
Sims told KTNV that her epidural wore off during labor and the doctor drunkenly shamed her:
“I kept telling the doctor, ‘I can feel everything. I think the epidural wore off.’ And he’s like, ‘Oh just scoot your fat ass down,’ and, ‘Oh, I bet you wish your doctor would have came back in town.’”
If a jury finds this all to be true, it’s absolutely shameful behavior that should put his medical license under review.
Sims is claiming that due to DeLee’s drunken negligence, her son Jared was injured during the rough delivery, developing Erb’s Palsy, which is a nerve injury caused by an injury to the upper arm.
While the doctor denies wrongdoing and Sunrise Hospital, where the incident took place, tried to get the lawsuit dismissed, KTNV reports that once they dug into DeLee’s past they discovered that this wasn’t the first time a baby developed this type of injury during one of his deliveries.
Records from the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners show that DeLee settled a 2012 case of “negligent vaginal delivery resulting in shoulder dystocia” and that another half dozen reports have been filed on him for possible malpractice.
His insurance payments and settlements total over $2.7 million.
Sims was shocked:
“It’s very surprising because if he has a track record I don’t understand why he still has a license to practice.”
As of now, it appears Dr. DeLee is still on staff at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas.
The hospital denies any wrongdoing on behalf of their staff, saying – unbelievably – that Sims was aware of the risks of childbirth when she went into the hospital!
Meanwhile, Jared has been going to physical and occupational therapy since he was 3 weeks old and has regained some function in his arm, but he will still need surgery.
You can scroll down to watch video from a news report about the incident. As of 2019, no more news of the case has been made public.
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