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Father Blames Death of Newborn Son on Medical Negligence

The father of a week-old baby who died on February 7 in Yerevan's Muratsan hospital filed an appeal with the Police to get a permit for a forensic medical examination of the infant's corpse. Speaking to Epress.am Monday, Makar Antonyan, a resident of the Aygestan village in Armenia's Ararat province, claimed that his son was not born with damages, and he died because of the negligence and errors of local doctors.

Antonyan's wife, Sima Yeremyan, went on January 29 for a consultation at the Artashat hospital: “The doctor, Mrs. Zemfira (Zemfira Navasardyan, head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Artashat Medical Center – Epress.am) said that the baby was in the breech position, but since [my wife] was not in pain, they told her to come on February 3.”

On the morning of January 30, however, the woman was rushed to the hospital since her pain had intensified. However, Antonyan told Epress.am, despite knowing full well that the baby was in the breech position, doctors decided not to perform c-section. 

“They injected drugs to induce labor, and only came to their senses and realized they should have done c-section when the baby is born in a semi-suffocated state,” the father said. He added that soon after the birth the infant was transferred in a critical condition to Muratsan hospital in Yerevan, where he died a few days later.

Doctor Zemfira Navasardyan, in turn, told Epress.am that she was the one who had decided against a Cesarean section “since there was no need for it.”

“The position of the fetus was initially unstable, but I still think that [Sima Yeremyan] should have given birth herself. She is a big woman, she weigh more than a hundred kilos, she has had two babies before: she should have been able to give birth to a 2,7 kg baby,” Navasardyan insisted.