Eventually, the patient was transferred to a hospital, where her baby was born with respiratory distress and required seven days of hospitalization. Standing by O'Conner, though, the patient at a December hearing testified that she thought the hospital was to blame for her baby's poor condition because Darlington, the midwife there, failed to recognize a placental abruption, a charge Darlington denied.
O'Conner has frequently alienated other health care providers. "Her professional attitude toward the pediatricians was that it was her role not only to critique our care, but to protect 'her' patients from what she considered to be our unnecessary and intrusive interference," wrote a Northwest Hospital pediatrician in a 1997 letter to the state. A similar letter came from Providence Medical Center. O'Conner does not deny the charge. "I'm pretty aggressive about how I advocate for my clients," she says. "I'm paid to do that."
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One of the most compelling dramas revealed in O'Conner's voluminous file concerns an encounter between O'Conner and a Kirkland paramedic. O'Conner had called for paramedics after helping to deliver a baby, according to the mother's statement, who was "covered with meconium" and was barely breathing. The paramedic, James Pierce, wanted to suction the baby's lungs, but O'Conner objected. How vociferously depends on who's telling the story, but Pierce, under the agitated eye of the father, ultimately decided he couldn't proceed and went to the hospital.
Although O'Conner questions the need for suctioning regardless of the baby's condition, she says that in this case, the baby was stable by the time the medic arrived. She also says she was worried about the medic making mistakes while attempting to perform what is a tricky procedure. Pierce, now a paramedic lecturer at Central Washington University, contends that he knew what he was doing. And he insists that the baby was far from stable. "The baby was limp, grossly blue," and had "not just trouble breathing but severe trouble breathing," he recalls. "This kid was dying." According to a statement by a physician at Evergreen Hospital, where the baby was taken, doctors there suctioned meconium from below the baby's vocal cords, at which point the baby's condition began to improve.
Despite the long list of allegations against O'Conner, many of her former clients remain adamant supporters. One is Kelly Meinig, a 38-year-old mechanical engineer who had a home birth last year with O'Conner acting as a doula. "Debra was phenomenal at my birth," Meinig recalls. Though another midwife was present, it was O'Conner whom Meinig felt brought a spiritual quality to the birth. "Debra would be locked onto my hands, looking into my eyes and just intensely staying with me," Meinig says. "As ferocious as my contractions were, she was ferocious right back. I've never had that experience with any other human in my entire life."
That connection held up for the five long days in which Meinig was in labor. During that time, O'Conner essentially moved in, sleeping on a mattress by the hot tub in which Meinig eventually gave birth. Before she left, O'Conner made "refrigerator soup" so that the Meinigs would have food to eat while they were taking care of their newborn.
As O'Conner awaits a court ruling, Meinig is watching. So strongly does she feel about O'Conner that she says, "I will not have another baby unless Debra is my doula—or hopefully my midwife."
nshapiro@seattleweekly.com
