Is Dr. Brad Bootstaylor another Dr. Wonderful?
Long time readers may remember the story of the original Dr. Wonderful, Robert Biter, MD. Back in 2010 Dr. Biter had his obstetric privileges at Scripps Encinitas suspended. Natural childbirth advocates held marches, conducted a letter writing campaign, and blogged in support, all without having any idea of the charges against him.
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]It’s almost as if they don’t care about the babies harmed at their hands.[/pullquote]
It turned out that he was facing multiple malpractice suits for having harmed multiple patients. His behavior was so egregious that he was eventually stripped of his medical license.
At least in that case, Dr. Biter’s supporters did not know why privileges were revoked and simply assumed that is was because of his support for homebirth, waterbirth, etc.
In the case of Dr. Brad Bootstaylor, his supporters profess surprise and anger that his privileges have been restricted. His practice, See Baby Midwifery, is organizing a rally in support and has contacted multiple media outlets to express their outrage.
There’s just one problem. They KNOW that many babies have been injured and harmed by Dr. Bootstaylor and the midwifery practice; they’re simply lying about it to the public.
On August 21, See Baby Midwifery posted the following:
To our amazement and disappointment, See Baby Midwifery was advised by DeKalb Medical on 8/17/16 (Wednesday) that we can no longer support birth options for mothers to include VBAC, water birth and vaginal breech births. This sudden and unexpected lack of support brings great concern to us and our community.
Temporarily, all VBAC eligible and breech presenting patients will be birthing at Emory Midtown with Brad Bootstaylor, MD.
Water birth has also been discontinued however water labor, of which the majority of patients benefit most, is still supported and available to you (birthing pool, shower, tub, etc.).
Midwifery services will continue at Dekalb Medical for all other patients…
Having this type of news come out of nowhere, is something we are empathetic to, and we share in that frustration wholeheartedly… (my emphasis)
But, in truth, they’ve known all along that multiple babies have been harmed by their practice.
In a private group planning the protest, a supporter acknowledges:
… I saw some information about this whole policy change being due to a bad outcome with a VBA2C birth this week…
Indeed:
There was no loss. There was a transfer [from home] that resulted in a rupture but mom and baby are alive… This was a significant complication. Catastrophic.
Evidently there are problems with Dr. Bootstaylor’s use of forceps, too, which elicited this chilling acknowledgement:
I am a bit biased and I truly love Dr. B but forceps are not his strong suit.
But wait! There’s more!
…[T]here have been many bad outcomes over the months regarding water birth. She said there have been more babies being sent to the NICU since See Baby [Midwifery] was there than ever before…
There was an emergency meeting of the DeKalb OB department last night. A doula reports that Dr. Bootstaylor told her:
30 OBs at the meeting. Many felt waterbirth was forced upon them. See Baby [Midwifery] was invited there in the beginning… He says it feels that they are now being uninvited…
Could it be because their obstetrician presided over a homebirth disaster, is so unskilled with forceps that the support staff has noticed, and an unusually high proportion of babies from their practice is ending up in the NICU?
The OB department wants to restrict Dr. Bootstaylor’privileges:
Was forced to sign the VBAC and breech and forceps or lose privileges. Voluntary refrainment of these practices.
The restrictions on Dr. Bootstaylor and See Baby Midwifery have been put in place in the wake of bad outcomes that represent real babies who have been harmed, possibly grievously, possibly permanently.
Has See Baby Midwifery been honest with its patients and other members of the community about what has happened. Of course not!
See Baby Midwifery shared that Dr. Bootstaylor’s privileges have been restricted, but not why they have been restricted. It’s almost as if they don’t care about the babies harmed at their hands, only about the ones that they can still profit from.
What did See Baby Midwifery do about their bad outcomes? Did they perform root-cause analyses? Did they modify their practice to prevent further outcomes? Of did they just bury them, hoping no one would notice about the trail of damaged babies they left in their wake?
The outrage here is NOT that DeKalb Medical Center moved to restrict Dr. Bootstaylor’s practice. They are legally and ethically required to act. But Dr. Bootstaylor and the midwives of See Baby are ALSO legally and ethically required to act. Instead, they tried to rally support for their harmful practices and figuratively bury the babies that have been injured at their hands.
They should be ashamed of themselves.
