Bacchus Marsh doctor Surinder Parhar paid $10,500 to distraught mum after baby death

THE doctor at the centre of Victoria’s baby deaths scandal secretly paid a woman whose newborn died in a delivery.

• Mother’s grief over lost angel
• Deaths possibly ‘avoidable’ at horror hospital
• Doctor flees after bosses take action

THE doctor at the centre of Victoria’s baby deaths scandal secretly paid a woman whose newborn died in a delivery.

Bacchus Marsh obstetrician Surinder Parhar was blamed for the horror labour that claimed baby Maddisyn’s life, and almost mum Melinda Buchanan’s too.

Ms Buchanan received just $10,500 in a hush money payment from the doctor’s insurers.

Maddisyn was starved of oxygen when the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck in the 1994 labour, and died three days later.

Ms Buchanan then contracted septicaemia: staff at another hospital discovered part of her placenta had been left inside her to rot.

This latest revelation suggests authorities knew of concerns 20 years ago, but failed to act.

A probe has found that seven of 11 stillbirths or newborn deaths at Bacchus Marsh and Melton Regional Hospital in 2013-14 may have been avoidable.

In a final indignity, Ms ­Buchanan was forced to pay Dr Parhar more than $300 for a report into what went wrong.

A still from Ms Buchanan's video of the birth of Maddisyn.

Documents obtained by the Herald Sun reveal a litany of mistakes and mistreatment during her pregnancy.

It also details a separate horrifying incident a year earlier when she miscarried and Dr Parhar pulled out her dead foetus with his own hand, ­inspecting it in front of her.

Ms Buchanan said it had taken years to recover from the trauma of losing her daughter.

“I should be preparing for her 21st birthday next year,” she said.

“I didn’t get to see the smile on her face on her first day of school. I never saw her blow out her birthday candles.

“And I’m not the only parent this has happened to.’’

Ms Buchanan said her son Lachlan, 15, gave her a reason to live.

But she urged authorities to bring the ex-director of obstetrics at Bacchus Marsh hospital back to Australia.

Dr Parhar surrendered his registration to practise and fled overseas upon revelations that 11 babies had died at the centre in three years.

There have been calls to widen an investigation into the mistreatment of patients and the death of infants dating back to the late 1980s.

“He was barbaric,’’ Ms ­Buchanan claimed.

“His mannerisms ... it was like dealing with an employee at a supermarket who can’t be bothered doing their job.”

Ms Buchanan sued Dr Parhar for personal injury in 1995.

The case was settled by ­mediation in August 1999.

Ms Buchanan said she had to sign a nondisclosure document as part of the settlement.

The shocking details of the bungled birth are detailed in an account she gave her lawyers.

“Dr Parhar came into the labour ward as midwives were in the process of delivering baby,’’ it states.

“Maddisyn was lifted onto my chest with the umbilical cord still around her throat. I went to lift the cord and the midwives immediately took her from me and placed her in a delivery cot.’’

She goes on to detail how Dr Parhar started hand respiration on her daughter, who was not breathing.

When she asked if her daughter was OK, he said: “she’s shellshocked and will take a while to come around.’’

Ms Buchanan with baby Maddisyn. Picture: Rob Leeson.

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THE FILES OF SHAME

1986 — Suzanne Clark says she was left in excruciating pain when treated by Dr Parhar after a miscarriage, having been given no pain relief while he “manually” removed her placenta.

1995 — Debra Pum alleges Dr Parhar dismissed concerns about her pregnancy and assured her he detected a heartbeat during her 38-week check-up, although the following day she discovered her son, Corey, had been dead in her womb for several weeks.

March 2010— Julie MacIntosh believes concerns about her high-risk pregnancy were not taken seriously by staff Bacchus Marsh before her son, Xavier, was stillborn at 37 weeks.

2012 — Lynne Nagy is diagnosed with Stage Three endometrial cancer by another specialist — two years after starting treatment with Dr Parhar, who never diagnosed the disease. She died on Mother’s Day, 2015.

February 2013 —A woman who almost dies following a series of complex health issues while giving birth under Dr Parhar’s care is rushed to another hospital where specialists save her life. The woman’s baby dies.

November 2013— Schazz Curran is devastated after believing she was having a healthy baby until an ultrasound in the early stages of labour detected a serious problem. Dr Parhar delivered Tiffany by caesarean; but she was born with a rare defect and lived for only a few days.

November 2013— Stacey Caldera lost Akeirah as a result of complications during labour at Bacchus Marsh after contacting the hospital with concerns, only to be told to take a hot bath. During a check-up the next day she was again told everything was fine, but a scan the following day found there was no heartbeat.

2013 — Five infants die from “avoidable causes” at Bacchus March Hospital, twice the number that were expected.

October 2014 — Samantha Mutimer claims she almost died of complications after Dr Parhar delivered her son, Jack, by C-section. As her legs expanded with fluid and her stomach swelled, Ms Mutimer was rushed to Ballarat Hospital after an artery was cut during the caesarean.

March 2014— Chantelle McPhee says she went to Bacchus Marsh hospital while in labour with daughter Lilly-May Dale four times, before being told that because it was a weekend the hospital could not perform a caesarean. She later went to the Royal Women’s and, within 15 minutes of arriving, the birth was induced.

May 2014— Betty Scopas goes into labour. Bacchus Marsh hospital says her son’s heartbeat was strong according to a monitor, but then it could not be detected. Dr Parhar uses an ultrasound for an examination before performing an emergency C-section. Her son, Daniel, was stillborn.

2014 — Two babies die from “avoidable causes” at Bacchus Marsh hospital.