A Medical Council Fitness to Practise Inquiry has begun into a doctor who was involved in the management of the birth of a baby at South Tipperary General Hospital in September 2008.
Dr Mahmud Khbuli was an agency locum registrar in obstetrics, who worked at the hospital for four days and the events occurred on his second day there.
The allegations are of poor professional performance.
The complaint was made to the council by the baby’s parents, Aoife and Raymond Manton, from Cashel in Co Tipperary.
Their daughter Katie was born on 17 September 2008, following unsuccessful attempts at vacuum delivery and an emergency Caesarean section was performed.
The inquiry was told by barrister Neasa Bird for the council that records say that after birth, Katie experienced seizure activity, was intubated and ventilated and suffered brain damage, due to lack of oxygen during or shortly after her birth.
Ms Manton was 31 at the time and it was her first pregnancy. She had been admitted to hospital past her due date and labour was induced.
After the emergency C-section she was taken to intensive care and baby Katie was later transferred to Waterford Regional Hospital.
The allegations against Dr Khbuli include that when called on 17 September to review Ms Manton, he failed to respond appropriately or at all and that he failed to document any, or an adequate clinical examination.
It is also alleged that he failed to consider an urgent delivery, or to obtain a second opinion from a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist.
He also faces an allegation that he continued with vacuum assisted delivery after three pulls, and in the absence of progressive descent of the fetal head in circumstances where he knew, or ought to have known it was inappropriate.
Dr Khbuli is also alleged to have permitted and supervised a Senior House Officer to attempt a vacuum assisted delivery.
The inquiry has heard that Katie died in April 2021 aged 12, after suffering severe neurological consequences arising from birth.
Ms Manton told the inquiry that Katie suffered seizures all night in South Tipperary Hospital after her birth, before being brought to Waterford Regional Hospital where she spent three weeks.
She said that when Katie came home, she had Grade 5 cerebral palsy, the most severe type.
She could not lie down and needed to sit upright.
Ms Manton said that Katie was in a lot of pain, could only move her neck and smile and had seizures daily.
“She had a happy life but a very hard life. But it could all have been avoided,” she told the inquiry.
The inquiry heard that Dr Khbuli qualified in Tripoli in Libya in 1983.
He is representing himself at the inquiry, with no legal representation.
The inquiry heard that he is now living in Dublin and has retired from practice.
Dr Khbuli told the inquiry it was an extremely sad case and that no medical professional wants to harm their patient.
He added that the case had affected him deeply.
The inquiry is being held remotely via an online platform and is scheduled to last two days.
