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BIRTH

Woman suffers cardiac arrest while giving birth

A 30-year-old woman went into cardiac arrest while giving birth at a Stockholm clinic - without hospital staff noticing that anything was wrong. She remains in a critical condition on Friday.

Woman suffers cardiac arrest while giving birth
Photo: Tomas Oneborg/TT

On Friday afternoon the woman was still fighting for her life at a hospital in central Stockholm.

On Sunday morning the woman gave birth at the private Sophia maternity clinic, and while the eight hospital staff members in the room were preoccupied with the baby, the woman's husband noticed something was amiss, Sveriges Television (SVT) reported.

As the clinic lacked facilities for intensive care, the woman was driven to Karolinska Hospital in Solna.

The clinic's spokeswoman said that the staff members had behaved in accordance with guidelines.

"This is an extremely complicated situation, but we did as the contract specifies: If a patient appears to need intensive care for more than 17 hours then we stabilize the patient and transfer them to our collaborator, Karolinska," spokeswoman Ulrica Törning stated.

The Sophia Maternity Hospital (BB Sophia) opened in April earlier this year, and concerns were expressed at the time over the clinic's lack of resources for intensive care.  

Törning claimed that the hospital did indeed have intensive care facilities, noting two intensive care beds, two operation rooms, and anaesthesia with full on-call staff for intensive care. 

She added that the incident was being investigated, and the hospital would launch a malpractice report at the end of next week.

Reports said the woman's child was healthy.

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