. Anaesthetist was three-times drink- drive limit when she wrongly inserted tube causing mother to suffer a heart attack. Belgian Helga Wauters, 45 was working at maternity clinic in Orthez, France

. She has admitted that she has a ‘pathological problem’ with alcohol. Accused of inserting tube into patient’s oesophagus instead of windpipe

. Baby survived but 28-year-old mother-to-be starved of oxygen and died. Had equivalent of four bottles of wine in blood when quizzed over incident

. Been charged with aggravated manslaughter and faces up to five years jail

 

An anaesthetist was almost three times the drink-drive limit when a British-born patient died in her care, it emerged yesterday. Belgian Helga Wauters, 45, had ‘difficulties with expression, comprehension and reactivity’ during a Caesarean section procedure.

 

The medic, who admits a ‘pathological problem’ with alcohol, is accused of inserting a tube into the patient’s oesophagus instead of her windpipe during the procedure in France. The baby survived, but the 28-year-old mother-to-be, who has not been named, was starved of oxygen and suffered a fatal heart attack.

 

In custody: Belgian Helga Wauters, 45, has been charged with aggravated manslaughter and faces up to five years in prison

 

Wauters was yesterday in custody charged with aggravated manslaughter and faces up to five years in prison. Prosecutors in Pau, south-west France, say the Belgian is guilty of a ‘deliberate violation of caution and security’.

 

She was found to have 216 microgrammes of alcohol per litre of blood – the equivalent of four bottles of wine – when questioned. The legal driving limit in the UK is 80 microgrammes. 

 

Prosecutor Jean-Christophe Muller said investigators were looking at the conditions under which the procedure took place and if the use of anaesthetics and artificial respiration were ‘inconsistent’ with good practice. They are also concerned that Wauters’s behaviour was ‘not in its normal state’, he added.

 

The alleged incident happened during a C-section last month at a maternity clinic in the town of Orthez. The patient died on September 27 after being transferred to another hospital in Pau.

 

French health bosses say the maternity clinic faces being closed down.

 

The regional health authority for Aquitaine, an area of France popular with British tourists, has suspended the clinic’s work while an ‘administrative investigation’ continues. Yves Darrigrand, the mayor of Orthez, argued that staffing problems were at the heart of the problem because ‘anaesthetists are very hard to find’.

 

He said the incident had exposed the ‘terrible shortage’ of specialists in obstetrics and gynaecology and anaesthesia who ‘sell their services at exorbitant prices’.

Mr Darrigrand said many charged the equivalent of more than £800 a day, because they were in such short supply. Wauters, who has been held since Thursday, has practised since 1999 and was hired by the private clinic in Orthez earlier this year. She was not a member of staff.

 

The patient came from Ustaritz, a small village in the Basque province of Labourd, some 40 miles away. She had asked to be taken to Orthez because of its ‘previously good reputation’, said Mr Darrigrand. Pau hospital confirmed that she was a French passport holder who was ‘born in Britain’.

 

The cause of death was confirmed as ‘cardiac arrest’ and the woman’s child is now in the care of the hospital and other family members.

 

By PETER ALLEN IN PARIS

DailyMail