Musician blames doctor for newborn baby's death

THE medical notes detailing the short life of the son of rock music stalwart Jim Keays were full of clinical jargon. But a pin could have dropped in the Victorian Coroner's Court yesterday when four words that any layman would understand were spoken: "Rapid delivery. Fresh stillbirth".

THE medical notes detailing the short life of the son of rock music stalwart Jim Keays were full of clinical jargon. But a pin could have dropped in the Victorian Coroner's Court yesterday when four words that any layman would understand were spoken: "Rapid delivery. Fresh stillbirth".

Keays's wife Karin wept as the court heard details of the induced labour of baby William, who was revived by doctors but died six hours after he was stillborn on November 1, 2003, at Waverley Private Hospital in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

Best known as the flamboyant frontman of the band Masters Apprentices, it was a very different Keays who sat with his wife and confronted their personal tragedy in court yesterday.

The couple "blamed" their obstetrician, Geoffrey Edwards, for William's death and believed the doctor had "deliberately manipulated" Mrs Keays's case notes, the inquest into his death heard.

Mrs Keays believed the doctor may have been drinking alcohol on a Saturday afternoon before arriving at hospital. She accused Dr Edwards of failing to adequately monitor the labour, exhibiting a "relaxed attitute" that seemed indicative of substance abuse and lying to her face about the circumstances surrounding William's death.

The court heard Dr Edwards - an obstetrician of 20 years' experience who runs a private practice, works as a consultant at Melbourne's Monash Medical Centre, and holds a position as honorary lecturer at Monash University - broke Mrs Keays's waters in the morning, left the hospital and then returned at 2pm. Mrs Keays was not in labour then, and he returned home, receiving a telephone call from the hospital at 4:20pm after which he rushed to the hospital.

Dr Edwards said he had been home relaxing when he received the call and denied drinking any alcohol.

"I had a patient in labour and I had not consumed any alcohol at all on that day," he told the court.

Dr Edwards said he had "absolutely not" manipulated his patient's case notes.

The court heard Dr Edwards had concerns about the size of the overdue baby and believed had the pregnancy not been induced, William would have died in the womb. That was an opinion rejected by Mrs Keays.

Dr Edwards said the death was "an unexplained placental malfunction".

The inquest continues today.