Chapter 7 - The Medical Board Trial
The hearing before the State Medical Board was held in a high-ceilinged courtroom downtown.
I sat at the prosecution table in a crisp black suit, holding my head high. Across the aisle sat Cameron, stripped of his clinical arrogance, sitting beside a court-appointed defense attorney who looked exhausted before the trial even began.
The board reviewed the evidence systematically:
The telemetry readings showing severe fetal distress ignored for over forty-five minutes.
The unauthorized, forced discontinuation of the epidural without clinical indication.
The forged medical chart entries.
The testimony of Nurse Clara and Dr. Julian Vance.
When it was my turn to testify, I walked up to the witness stand with quiet grace. I didn't cry. I didn't raise my voice. I spoke as Chief of Emergency Medicine and as a mother who almost lost her child to ego and malice.
May you like
"Dr. Bennett did not make a clinical error," I stated clearly to the panel of medical peers. "A clinical error is an honest mistake made under pressure. Dr. Bennett used his medical authority to inflict pain and exercise dominance over a patient who happened to be his wife. He compromised a newborn life to satisfy a personal grudge."
When the panel rendered its verdict, it was swift and brutal. Cameron Bennett’s medical license was permanently revoked. Furthermore, the district attorney’s office announced it was filing criminal charges for reckless endangerment and medical assault.
