Bizarre malpractice case where the Air Force was successfully sued. A midwife outranked a physician, but still called the shots:
Murphy said Air Force medical providers allowed military rank to interfere in the mother’s care.
The judge determined that throughout the delivery, providers treated the midwife, who was a major, as if she were a physician. The judge says they deferred to her out of rank. The doctor was a captain.
Leading up to the delivery, there were indications that the baby’s heart rate wasn’t normal, but officials still deferred to the midwife.
