Mourning family demands answers after 30-year-old woman dies in childbirth
The mother's family says the newborn needed to be resuscitated after birth, and that they have sought an independent autopsy for her death.
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The family of a Brooklyn woman is demanding answers from Woodhull Medical Center after a 30-year-old woman died after giving birth at the hospital.
The friends and family of Christine Fields stormed into the Woodhull Medical Center, where on Monday, she was pregnant, healthy and engaged to be married next year.
While in labor at Woodhull, medical staff said the baby’s heart rate was dropping and a C-section was needed, according to Fields’ fiancé.
Fields had planned and prepped for vaginal birth but her midwife was not on the shift, so she objected to the C-section. Her fiancé says he was removed from the room as she underwent emergency C-section, and the family saw Fields and the newborn alive.
The family left and was told later that Fields had died. The family is now waiting for medical records that they say the hospital won’t give them yet.
In 2020, an anesthesiologist with the hospital botched the epidural of Sha-Asia Semple, according to a report from the state. Semple died during labor, and her baby survived.
Fields’ family says the newborn needed to be resuscitated after birth, and that they have sought an independent autopsy for Fields’ death.
News 12 has reached out to New York City Health + Hospitals for comment and more information and is awaiting a response.
