PANORAMA CITY : Doctor Suspended After Baby’s Death
A Panorama City doctor has been suspended from practicing medicine for 30 days for not recognizing medical complications in a pregnant woman whose baby was born dead in a hospital hallway.
The Medical Board of California also placed Dr. Lee S. Brilliant on five years probation and ordered him to undergo additional classes in obstetrics and gynecology in connection with the 1988 stillbirth.
State investigators said Brilliant failed to recognize a dangerous fetal heartbeat pattern and other trouble signs in the mother, whom they identified only as Hilda A. She was admitted to a Granada Hills hospital in March, 1988.
Brilliant caused additional problems by ordering that Hilda receive the painkiller Demerol and by failing to have a surgical team on standby to perform a Cesarean section, officials said.
As a result of delays while a team was assembled, Hilda’s baby was delivered dead in a hospital hallway with its umbilical cord wrapped around its neck, they said.
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