A man in Australia sued the hospital where he witnessed his wife give birth via cesarean-section in 2018, claiming it caused him a ‘psychotic illness.’
Dad Anil Koppula filed the lawsuit several years after the successful operation. He claimed that the experience led to a ‘breakdown of his marriage.’
In the documents filed to support his suit, Mr. Koppula alleges that he was ‘encouraged, or permitted, to observe the delivery, that in the course of doing so, he saw his wife’s internal organs and blood.’
Koppula also said ‘that the hospital breached a duty of care it owed to him and is liable to pay him damages.’
His lawsuit seeks damages from the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne in the amount of 1 billion Australian dollars, the equivalent of more than 642 million US dollars.
The hospital in Australia has said that it hadn’t breached a ‘duty of care,’ and Koppula didn’t suffer any real injury because of the C-section he observed.
Koppula chose to represent himself in court.
The judge – Justice James Gorton – agreed with the hospital and dismissed the suit, calling the claim an ‘abuse of process.’
A C-section is the surgical delivery of a baby through an incision made in the mother’s abdomen and uterus, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Health-care providers use it when they believe it is safer for the mother and/or the baby.
