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Of all the things pregnant women worry about when they go into labor, a drunk doctor shouldn’t be one of them. But that’s the situation Alex Sims reportedly found herself in when she stepped foot inside Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas on May 16, 2015, to give birth to a baby boy.

Sims Family/Us Weekly

Sims Family/Us Weekly

“Before I even saw him, I smelled the alcohol,” Alex’s mother Sheree Sims told Us Weekly.

In a video recorded on a cellphone, Dr. Frank DeLee, while barefoot and wearing Bermuda shorts, can be heard saying, “Wasn’t that many people in the bar when I left.” A nurse then asks, “I’m sorry. Did you waste a drink?”

The conversation continued while Alex, in induced labor and facing a possible C-section, lay inches away in her hospital bed. “So… Is Belvedere that you just had to pour out? the nurse asks.” Dr. DeLee responds, “No, tequila.”

Making matters worse, 28-year-old Alex says she didn’t receive proper pain management during the delivery. “I kept telling the doctor I can feel everything,” she told local news channel KTNV. “I think the epidural wore off. And he’s like, ‘Oh just scoot your fat a– down’ and ‘Oh, I bet you wish your doctor would have came back in town.'”

Cellphone video confirms Alex’s story along with other details such as Dr. DeLee responding to a question of whether he was at Happy Hour with, “Well look what time it is.”

“It was just jaw dropping,” she said. “I just couldn’t fathom why all this was going on in the midst of me having a child.”

Now Alex is suing Dr. DeLee, alleging the rough delivery caused her son Jared to have Erb’s Palsy, a paralysis of the arm that’s caused by nerve damage. “Medical experts hired to review the case determined Dr. DeLee used ‘inappropriate techniques by pulling’ Jared’s arms. And the doctor ‘failed to diagnose and recognize the pressure of shoulder dystocia,'” KNTV reported.

Cal Potter, the attorney who represents Alex, called the incident “a very disturbing sequence of events,” adding, “I think any person should be horrified.”

What’s worse is this is far from Dr. DeLee’s first malpractice suit. KNTV noted: “According to Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners records, Dr. DeLee settled a 2012 case of  ‘negligent vaginal delivery resulting in shoulder dystocia.’ And Dr. DeLee has another half dozen reports of possible malpractice involving insurance payouts and settlements totaling more than $2.7 million.”

 The nurses and the entire hospital have been named in Alex’s lawsuit as well.
“Someone needs to be accountable,” the mother said “And I just feel like, if I don’t speak up for my child, who will?”
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