15-Year-Old Assists In C-Section, Mother Has No Idea

A Swedish hospital has apologized to a woman for letting a 15-year-old schoolgirl assist in the Caesarian section delivery of her baby. The mother read about the incident in the newspaper but could not believe that the story was about them. According to The Daily Mail, the mother did not think that the assistant could have been a child since nobody at the hospital had told them of the incident. The truth was revealed when the surgeon called the parents and confessed that she’d allowed the schoolgirl to assist.

The 15-year-old schoolgirl was introduced to the mother as a medical student and actually wielded a scalpel during the surgery, which took place at Malmö University Hospital. The girl is a relative of the surgeon. Officials later admitted that the girl had been allowed to take part in a second birth and had “shadowed the surgeon during a number of operations.”

The mother told the Sydsvenskan newspaper that she thought the girl “was a medical student practicing patient contact, something that you do early on in your medical training.” She added, “This is a university hospital so one must be prepared to meet students.”

The Stir writer Mary Fischer comments on her experience giving birth a teaching hospital and notes, “Not once did I question whether or not these students and residents were actually students and/or residents — because I completely trusted my doctor and the labor and delivery nurses.” She goes on the admonishes other mothers to be wary. “The last thing you want to find out postpartum,” Fischer quips, “Is that the teenager down the street was a witness to your birth.”