Italy health minister visits, apologizes to woman who gave birth amid fighting doctors

Italy health minister apologizes for botched birth

MESSINA, Sicily — Italy’s health minister has apologized to a new mother for an operating room fistfight between two doctors that led to her botched delivery.

According to news reports, Laura Salpietro had to have her uterus removed, and her son Antonio suffered heart problems following his birth Thursday in Messina’s public hospital.

Hospital officials and Salpietro’s husband, Matteo Molonia, say the two doctors — her private physician and the one on duty at the hospital — disagreed about whether to perform a cesarean section and came to blows. Molonia says the fight delayed the C-section by over an hour, leading to complications for mother and son.

Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio visited Salpietro on Monday in the hospital to apologize. Prosecutors have placed five doctors under investigation.