http://www.pressdemocrat.com/local/news/16koehler_d1.html
Family, midwife, officials all frustrated by outcome of case involving
negligence during baby's delivery
November 16, 2003
By CAROL BENFELL
Little Trystan Condon, now almost 4, lies in his parents arms, unable to
roll over, sit up, crawl, walk, talk or even look at his mother and smile.
[...]
Koehler, 62, lives in semi-seclusion on her 48-acre Occidental farm,
sentenced to wearing an electronic monitor around her ankle for a year and
barred from visitors.
She says she did nothing to cause Trystan's maladies, and was prosecuted
only because she was an alternative health practitioner.
"I'm like a political prisoner," Koehler said. "It's the whole belief system
battle. Nobody knows what happened to that baby or why."
When Trystan was born on Feb. 8, 2000, his umbilical cord was compressed and
wrapped around his neck, his skin was blue and he had no pulse.
Koehler had brought oxygen tanks, but had neglected to fill them, so Condon
hurried to a nearby fire station for oxygen for the newborn.
Paramedics came to the home to administer it, but feared for the baby and
rushed mother and child to Sutter Medical Center in Santa Rosa.
Hospital records show Trystan had to be resuscitated upon admittance. His
blood oxygen was so low he had developed acidosis. He was diagnosed with
anoxic encephalopathy -- oxygen deprivation to the brain.
Hospital doctors informed the state Medical Board, which regulates doctors
and midwives who are not also nurses.
The board concluded that Trystan's massive brain damage was caused by
deprivation of oxygen for substantial periods during his mother's 27-hour
labor.
The board found Koehler directly responsible, saying she had disregarded
accepted procedures in a number of ways, including failing to monitor the
baby's heartbeat, which would have indicated fetal distress, and failing to
take the laboring mother to the hospital when second stage labor proceeded
too long.
The report was based on testimony and hospital records, because Koehler also
neglected to have a second midwife present to monitor the fetal heartbeat
and record the progress of the labor.
Condon and Sorensen blame themselves for choosing Koehler as their midwife,
but thought at the time they had made a good choice.
[...]