Dr Vaishnavy Laxman outside the tribunal in Manchester (Picture: Cavendish)

A senior NHS gynaecologist who accidentally decapitated a baby inside his mother’s womb has been found guilty of misconduct.

Dr Vaishnavy Laxman, 43, should have given her 30-year old patient an emergency Caesarean section as the premature infant was in a breech position, a medical tribunal heard.

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Instead, she told the mother to push while pulling on the baby’s legs as she attempted to carry out the birth naturally.

This caused the infant’s legs, arms and torso to become detached, leaving the head still in the mother’s womb.


Two other doctors completed a C-section on the woman to remove the infant’s head before it was ‘re-attached’ so his mother could hold him before she said goodbye.

Laxman, a consultant gynaecologist, caused an unborn baby to be accidentally decapitated inside her mother’s womb (Picture: Cavendish)

It is believed the child was already dead before he was decapitated during the bungled 15 minute delivery.



At the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester, consultant Laxman, who qualified in Chennai, India, denied wrongdoing.

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She argued she believed the baby would have died had a caesarean section been carried out.

But panel chairman Tim Bradbury today said: ‘It was Dr Laxman’s decision in this regard that was to dictate her subsequent actions and the course of events which ultimately led to Baby B being decapitated.

‘The Tribunal was in no doubt that throughout her involvement in the attempted delivery of Baby B, she was endeavouring to achieve the best outcome for Patient A and Baby B.

‘However the central issue in this case is whether Dr Laxman’s decision to attempt a vaginal delivery of Baby B rather than an immediate caesarean section under general anaesthetic was clinically indicated or whether the only proper course in the circumstances would have been to proceed to an immediate caesarean section.

He concluded: ‘The decision to proceed with vaginal delivery represented a failure in her clinical decision-making on the evidence available to her at the time.’

The tragedy occurred on March 16, 2014, at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.

The tragedy occurred at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee (Picture: Google)

Laxman broke down in tears at a previous hearing as she relived the bungled procedure, which happened as she was nearing the end of a 24-hour shift.

She had started work at 8.30am the previous day and went home at 6pm for five hours before returning to the hospital at 11pm.

She was told about the patient at 2am and was subsequently paged at 8.30am to take a look at her when her condition became more critical.

Later whilst discussing the method of delivery, Laxman told a colleague: ‘We are not doing a C-section – you would never do a C-section of a 25 weeker.’

She then carried out a vaginal examination of the woman and told her ‘to push’.

Mr Bradbury said: ‘Initially the body of Baby B descended without difficulty however, the arms were raised and the hands were behind the head which required manipulation by Dr Laxman for their delivery.

‘Thereafter, Baby B’s head became trapped in the uterus with his neck within Patient A’s cervix.

Dr Laxman told the hearing she had ‘tried too hard’ to deliver the baby (Picture: Cavendish)

‘There then followed what was to become, in the Tribunal’s view, an increasingly desperate attempt to deliver Baby B’s head



‘The evidence suggests, and the Tribunal accepts, that by the time that Baby B’s head became detached from his body he had already died.’

He said ‘the decapitation would not have occurred’ were it not for Dr Laxman’s ‘error of judgement’.

The doctor will now face further disciplinary hearings which will decide whether she could be struck off.

She earlier told the hearing: ‘I was trying to deliver a live baby, I was trying really hard, possibly too hard.

‘I did not intend to harm mum or the baby. I am distraught at the outcome and I am very sorry it did not come out the way I meant it.’