http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/03/13/state_suspends_obstetricians_license/

State medical regulators suspended the license yesterday of a Winchester Hospital obstetrician with a trail of serious patient complaints stretching back more than a decade, including a settled malpractice case from 2000 in which it was alleged that she went to lunch at a critical stage of the mother's labor. The baby died 45 minutes after being born.
The Board of Registration in Medicine took its action after reviewing nine cases in which allegations of poor care were leveled against the physician, Dr. Suzanne B. Rothchild.
The board called the 59-year-old obstetrician and gynecologist an "immediate and serious threat to public health." Last year, her malpractice insurance company said it would no longer insure her for new patients.
Rothchild's lawyer, Peter Kelley, said the decision was hasty and that Rothchild would appeal the suspension.
Court records in Middlesex County show that Rothchild was sued at least 12 times alleging medical malpractice in cases dating back to 1993. Records maintained by the Board of Registration indicated that she paid above-average settlements in four malpractice suits since 2005. She had also been disciplined twice by Winchester Hospital, including a six-month restriction on her practice in 2003 that required her to consult with another doctor when patients were admitted and to attend a course in fetal monitoring.
The number of actions and cases against Rothchild is unusually high, even among obstetricians, who typically face more malpractice suits than other doctors.
"This is an enormous number of cases for a single physician," said Andrew Meyer, a medical malpractice specialist at Lubin & Meyer in Boston, who represented several plaintiffs in actions against Rothchild, including a 1997 case involving an infant born with brain damage in which his client received a multimillion-dollar settlement. "Although many doctors have malpractice actions brought against them, there's a clear significance in the number of cases here. . . . The board very rarely does this."
Meyer also said the hospital should have taken stronger action against Rothchild.
"There must be responsibility of those people who employed her and allowed her to continue to practice," Meyer said. "They are guilty of being quiet and hiding from patients what they must have known about her. They allowed her to practice after many complaints."
Winchester Hospital - a not-for-profit, independent community hospital that delivers about 1,900 babies a year - issued a statement yesterday saying that it takes "the care and safety of our patients extremely seriously."
"We have cooperated with the Board of Registration in Medicine throughout its review of Dr. Rothchild," the statement said. "We have taken prompt action in response to the board's action today. Dr. Rothchild's privileges at Winchester Hospital have been suspended. We are now focused on making arrangements for the continued care of her patients."
Allegations against Rothchild, a graduate of State University of New York Downstate Medical Center who had been licensed to practice in Massachusetts since 1976, were building for years.
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The woman in the 2000 case, Carrol Rexrode, criticized Rothchild for going to lunch and delaying care, which she said resulted in the loss of her daughter Bailey Marie, who died 45 minutes after Rexrode gave birth to her by Caesarean section on Christmas Eve.
She said her daughter, who died of respiratory and heart failure, would have survived if she had been delivered between one and three hours earlier. Rexrode declined to comment on the amount of her settlement with Rothchild, who had been covering for another doctor.
"The day I met her was the worst day of my life," Rexrode said. "I would have thought someone in her place would have looked at themselves and recognized the harm that they caused and know when to stop practicing. I wish I never met her."
She added: "I don't want other people to go through the same heartache and pain."
In late 2002, Rothchild again failed to monitor a fetus properly, board documents allege, and the baby was nonresponsive at birth. In several other cases, the documents indicate, she also allegedly failed to monitor patients well enough, and failed to avert problems in the fetus by performing Caesarean sections or taking other actions. Obstetricians routinely monitor fetal heart beat during labor, watching for distress, and monitor the mother to make sure labor is progressing well.
Early last year, according to board allegations, Rothchild mismanaged a patient who suffered a potentially dangerous condition in which the placenta detaches from the wall of the uterus. That baby was born "flaccid and pale, with no signs of respiratory effort."
In September, as her malpractice insurer, ProMutual Group, refused to provide her with insurance for any new patients, Winchester Hospital disciplined her a second time, this time for poor fetal monitoring and not providing enough assistance to the nursing staff. It required her to comanage all patients in labor with another doctor and to take another course on fetal monitoring.
The Board of Registration took steps to discipline Rothchild in 2006 after an extensive investigation, but she contested its allegations.
Even though that case is still pending before an administrative magistrate, the board concluded that Rothchild should be removed from practice immediately after learning of the latest complaints against her, concerning the patient with the placenta problem.
Yesterday, Rothchild's lawyer issued a statement saying the board's action was unjustified.
"What makes the board action troublesome for all physicians is that it has no medical opinion or evidence that my client posed a threat to public safety," Kelley said.