Newborn needs stitches after being cut across face in C-section

On Wednesday, Kyanni Williams suffered the deep gash to her left cheek and had to have 13 stitches to seal the wound immediately after being born at Denver Health, in Colorado, US, The Sun reports.

“To have your granddaughter born to come out to see the plastic surgeon, to get 13 stitches, is devastating, it’s heartbreaking,” the baby’s grandfather, Walter Williams, told Fox 31.

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“It’s upsetting; she’s not comfortable,” the baby’s father Damarqus Williams said.

Mum Reazjhana Williams said doctors gave her a pill to speed up labour, and within minutes she was rushed into surgery for an emergency caesarean.

“They said our baby made a sudden movement – they couldn’t hear her heartbeat or find it – and they took her into an immediate C-section,” Damarqus said.

But during the surgery, doctors cut Kyanni’s face as the baby’s head was close to the placenta wall.

“I tried to be understanding about what happened, but on top of the fact her face got cut and a plastic surgeon had to come [stitch it], there’s just a lot of things I’m not understanding with the C-section,” Reazjhana said.

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“I’ve never heard of anybody having to deal with their baby’s face looking like this after a C-section.”

The baby’s grandmother, Tashaira Williams, has called for the doctors involved to be “held accountable”.

“I don’t think that’s right,” she said. “They have to be held accountable for what they did.”

According to Fox 31, babies rarely suffer cuts during C-sections.

“I’ve done over probably 2500 deliveries and I assisted on C-sections, that’s the first time I’ve ever seen that,” advance practice nurse Lisa Merck told the network.

“That is kind of one of the things that can happen, but it is really, really rare.”

A study carried out by the Child Health and Human Development Maternal-foetal Medicine Units Network also found such occurrences to be incredibly rare.

Of more than 37,000 C-sections carried out at 13 different hospitals between 1999 and 2000, only 0.7 per cent of babies suffered an abrasion.

In a statement, Denver Health acknowledged the incident and said it was communicating with the Williams’ family.

“Denver Health has been in touch with the family directly. While this is a known medical complication in emergency C-sections, our focus is always on providing care in the best interest of the mother and child,” a spokesperson said.

“At Denver Health, the safety and wellbeing of our patients is our number one priority.”

The Williams family has set up a GoFundMe page to help cover costs for a lawyer as they consider their legal options.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission