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Accidental fetal decapitation: a case of medical and ethical mishap

Jehuda Hiss1, Tzipi Kahana, Irad Burshtein

  • 1From the *The National Centre of Forensic Medicine, the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; †Division of Identification and Forensic Science, Israel National Police, Head Quarters, Jerusalem, Israel; and ‡Department of Obstetric and Gynecology, Assaf Harofeh Medical Centre, Tzrifin, Israel.

The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology
|March 2, 2010
PubMed

Blunt trauma to the head and neck of a newborn during delivery process is a rare event. We report a peculiar case of decapitation of a live fetus during vacuum-assisted delivery, where excessive traction on the head of the full-term macrosomic fetus with shoulder dystocia resulted in overstretching of the neck up to the point of decapitation. The ethical considerations related to the case are discussed in light of the policy of complete transparency advocated by the medical profession. Despite the existence of regulations regarding full disclosure of errors to the medical institution, the Ministry of Health and to the patient, medical practitioners are reluctant to divulge all the details of adverse events to the patient.

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