Bulgarian Midwife almost injected a new born baby with lethal air bubble

Bulgarian midwife almost injected new-born baby with lethal air bubble


A Bulgarian midwife who was hired to cover staff shortages at an NHS
hospital came close to injecting a new-born baby with an air bubble.








Margarita Avramova was one of
four Bulgarian midwives recruited by the hospital Photo: Kevin Dunnett/Central
News







By Telegraph reporters

3:06PM GMT 06 Feb 2013


1 Comment




Margarita Avramova had jabbed the syringe of vitamin K into the infant's leg
and was preparing to give the injection, which could have proved lethal.



She was stopped by a supervisor.


Avramova was among a batch of four Bulgarian midwives recruited by the Royal
Surrey County Hospital, in Guildford, to cover staff shortages in June 2009.



Colleagues soon realised her skills were well below those expected of a
midwife and branded her "gormless" after she struggled to recognise the
different stages of a birth.


She now faces being struck off.



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A Nursing and Midwifery Council panel found Avramova guilty of misconduct and
ruled she is unfit to continue working unrestricted as a midwife.

"We are in no doubt your behaviour on the facts found proved fell
significantly below the standards expected of a registered midwife", said panel
chairman Dr Pamela Ormerod.

"Your deficient clinical care put patients at serious risk of harm.

"As a qualified midwife, you are personally responsible for ensuring your
midwifery practice is safe at all times.

"You behaviour goes significantly beyond mere clinical incompetence and does
constitute misconduct."

Avramova tried to administer the injection containing an air bubble to the
baby on November 27, 2009, while under supervision because her standards of
practice had already been questioned.

Penny Lown, a senior midwife, had to relieve Avramova of her duties in
October 2009 because she did not know what stage a birth was at despite being in
charge of the procedure.

"When I asked if the mother was in second stage of labour, she shrugged and
said she didn't know", she said.

"It was clear the registrant didn't have a clue what to do, and I can only
describe her expression as gormless - she was standing there with her tongue
hanging out."

Ms Lown said Avramova spoke 'like a small child' and could barely form
coherent sentences for the medical notes.

Another senior midwife, Lesley Wood, remarked on Avramova's unsympathetic
treatment of patients and relatives, saying: "It was like going back to England
in the 1950s".

"I didn't want to work with the registrant again and I did not want patients
to be put in that position again", added Ms Lown.

Avramova was reported to the NMC for a string of failings during ten months
working at the hospital.

"There were multiple incidents of deficient clinical care, clinical
knowledge, inadequate patient care, and a failure to obtain patient confidence",
said Dr Ormerod.

"There was inadequate and unsatisfactory record keeping, communication
difficulties, and failing to follow instructions of those supervising you.

"These shortcomings continued notwithstanding a high level of support
provided by the trust."

Avramova was fired by the hospital in June 2010 after failing to make any
improvements during an extended period of supervision and retraining.

She claims to have 20 years' experience working as a midwife in Bulgaria,
another four years in Libya, but took a ten year break before coming to the UK.


Dr Ormerod said although Avramova had admitted some failures, she had shown
little insight and continued to deny she was at fault.

"You disagree with the panel's findings and stated that evidence from local
midwives was 'twisted' and you were not listen to because you are Bulgarian",
said Dr Ormerod.

"Your responses demonstrate a significant lack of insight into the
seriousness and wide-ranging nature of your failings."

Avramova was found guilty of the majority of the 13 charges against her.

She admitted failing to record the size of a baby's head, telling the panel
it was 'just a small error', as well as failing to check patients' name
bracelets.

She was cleared of failing to record a baby's heart rate and blood pressure,
of poor treatment of two mothers during births in April 2010, and of pulling a
baby's head when told to stop.

The panel will now decide what sanction to issue, and Avramova could be
struck off the nursing register.

ONE OF MY ANCESTORS WAS A MIDWIFE,I THINK SHE WAS A GOOD MIDWIFE.

Does this surprise me..no.


The qualifications that are needed to become a midwife in bulgaria is not the same as in the UK



If I went to Bulgaria ...with my qualifications I could probably be a brain surgeon .



My qualifications......I have a brain.

Did nobody test her ability before engaging her?

Evening Panda, follow this link.

http://www.nmc-uk.org/Documents/NMC-Publications/NMC-Overseas-midwives-programme.pdf

malena stool wrote:Evening Panda, follow this link.

http://www.nmc-uk.org/Documents/NMC-Publications/NMC-Overseas-midwives-programme.pdf

Thanks malena, I had a look, small writing but i think this bit applies.
Quality and excellence

The practice-centred standards of proficiency essential in midwifery are not separate and insular professional aspirations. They are directly linked to the wider goals of achieving clinical effectiveness within health care teams and agencies; with the ultimate aim of providing high quality midwifery care for women and their families. Assuring the quality of midwifery care is one of the fundamental underpinnings of clinical governance. It is essential that the midwifery standards of proficiency enable the student to contribute to this wider health care agenda, and quality must be addressed within all midwifery programmes preparing applicants to the

One of the most important aspects is these foreign Midwives, Nurses or even Doctors for that matter should be mentored and assessed until satisfactory standards of competence to UK standards are achieved, regardless of whatever certificates or degrees are in their possession from their country of origin.

But higher management have over the past 15 years or so allowed numbers of experienced hands on medical professionals to slip to truly dangerous levels and now are having to employ more and more inexperienced newly qualified staff or staff with questionable abilities from overseas.

This was highlighted by the German Locum Doctor, Daniel Ubani who killed David Gray when he injected him with 100mg of Diamorphine, a dose 10 times the recommended maximum, no UK trained Doctor who practised in this country would commit such a tragic act of incompetence.

Iv'e just posted an Article about the number of deaths in Hospital malena. As I have said before, it's not more money the NHS needs, it's the way they spend it.