Medic was drinking before caesarean that killed Briton in France, court told

Anaesthetist Helga Wauters is accused of manslaughter of Xynthia Hawke, 28

An alcoholic anaesthetist who botched an emergency caesarean operation that left a young British woman brain dead, had started drinking after waking up that morning, a French court heard on Thursday.

Helga Wauters, 51, is accused of pushing a breathing tube into 28-year-old Xynthia Hawke's oesophagus instead of her windpipe and failing to react even when the young woman turned blue, vomited, cried out in pain and went into cardiac arrest.