The Sixth Baby

For 36 of his 60 years Dr. Harry Heiman has practiced medicine in his native city of New Orleans. A wisp of a man, little more than five feet tall, he has delivered more than 2,000 babies. Last week Dr. Heiman was charged by the district attorney with "negligent homicide" as the result of the death of one of his patients from the complications of childbirth (maximum penalty: five years in prison). Court officials could remember no precedent in Louisiana and few elsewhere.

Agnes Serpas, 29, had already had five children (the fifth delivered by Dr. Heiman) without any trouble, explained her husband, Junk Collector Charles Serpas. She was a stocky woman of 5 ft. 2 in. and 140 Ibs., and "she used to be up & around doing a big washing three days after she had a baby," he said. Last month, nearing the end of her sixth pregnancy, Mrs. Serpas felt nauseated and went to Dr. Heiman. He gave her some pills, told her he would come to her house next day.

"She felt fine the next morning," says Serpas. "She washed a whole line of clothes. Around 5:30 or 6, Dr. Heiman came. He gave her a shot in the arm . . . She began to have pains and he made her get into bed. He started using forceps within 30 minutes of the time he gave her the shot." After an hour and a half, Mrs. Serpas was delivered of a daughter. Then she began to hemorrhage.

Dr. Heiman said Mrs. Serpas should have a transfusion. It took a while to get an ambulance. Mrs. Serpas was admitted to Charity Hospital at 10:20 and died at 11:50. Her baby, unnamed, was still there in an incubator this week.

Serpas' complaint, which led to the district attorney's charge, is that Dr. Heiman induced labor prematurely, at 7 1/2 months, and used forceps improperly. Said the doctor's lawyer: the birth came after 8 1/2 months, Heiman found Mrs. Serpas already in labor and did all that any doctor could have done.

Free on bail awaiting trial, probably in August, Dr. Heiman went about his practice, delivering babies as usual.

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