Inquest told: Earlier call might have averted stillbirth

If the Wanganui Hospital on-call operating theatre team had been called in 15 minutes earlier, a stillborn baby boy might have lived,  an inquest was told.
The  hearing was into the death of Sharna Ah Chookoon, 26, of amniotic fluid embolism syndrome (AFES) on June 17 last year at Wanganui Hospital.
Her baby son Elias died minutes later.
AFES is a rare and catastrophic condition that occurs during pregnancy or after delivery.
This unpreventable condition occurs when amniotic fluid and foetal skin cells leak into and clog the mother's blood vessels.
Mrs Chookoon's death was the second from AFES at Wanganui Hospital in two years. 
 
Consultant obstetrician/gynaecologist Dr David Wilde was the specialist on call that night.
It was his second 24-hour call-out in a row after being called to cover for a fellow obstetrician who  went home ill earlier that day.
Dr Wilde, who lives in Palmerston North and is contracted by  the Whanganui District Health Board on a part-time basis, said because he lived in Wanganui on the days he worked there, he was able to take over the specialist call-out that night.
On June 17, he was called at 1.54am and told there was an emergency and  that Mrs Ah Chookoon had collapsed during labour.
Initially he did not call in the emergency theatre team because he needed to assess the situation first, Dr Wilde said.
At Wanganui Hospital, described as a "small rural hospital", the on-call theatre team worked from 4pm till 11pm then went home and were on call  through the night  in case of an emergency, he said.
There were not sufficient staff numbers for a team to be at the hospital all night, Dr Wilde said.
"It's not like a main hospital like Middlemore or National Women's where a theatre team are there 24 hours for all emergency surgery."
Dr Wilde said he decided to try  to deliver the baby by suction or the Ventouse method.
But because the baby's head was still high up and needed to be rotated, the method didn't work and an emergency Caesarean section had to be set up, he said.
The theatre team was called at 2.30am and 30 minutes later  had the theatre prepped and ready, he said.
But just as they were about to take Mrs Ah Chookoon  to theatre  about 2.40am, she deteriorated rapidly and had a massive cardiac arrest, he said.
While she was being wheeled to theatre two staff knelt on the bed beside her administering intensive CPR, he said.
Dr Wilde said  Mrs Chookoon was dead when she got to theatre. Her baby son was stillborn, he said.
 Coroner  Carla na Nagara asked Dr Wilde what if the theatre team had been called in earlier.
 Dr Wilde: "They could have been called in on the off-chance they may be needed but I needed to assess the situation first."
Mrs na Nagara: "If you had called them in 15 minutes earlier at 2.15am, what would have been the chance of a success?"

 He said Mrs Ah Chookoon would still not have survived but baby Elias might well have been alive.

 The coroner has reserved her decision.