Dr. Michael Flax was the on-call OB/GYN when I delivered my first child in Oct. 2003 at Pres. Hosp. He was abusive physically and emotionally. He was so rough with me that he tore my perineum, even though I delivered without tearing. He appeared to be angry and agitated, and he tore me when he reached inside of me with one hand and pressed down hard on my perineum with the other hand. He did this when he began pulling on the placenta immediately after I delivered my baby (even though this is contrary to standard procedure) and then told me I needed surgery because he couldn't get the placenta out. When asked what would happen if we waited a few minutes for the placenta to deliver on it's own (as my OB of record said it could take up to 30 minutes), he said he didn't know what would happen if we waited. Thank God my husband did not allow him to take me anywhere. I delivered the placenta on my own within 11 minutes of giving birth (totally within normal range). Later, when we asked Dr. Flax why he refused to tell us why he thought surgery was necessary, he said our baby looked abnormal to him and he didn't think it was his job to tell us. Our baby was (and is) perfectly normal, and his response was clearly an attempt to shift the focus off himself. We have filed a complaint against him with the New Mexico Board of Medical Examiners, and it will go to the board this February (2006). He no longer works on-call for my OB/GYN, who by the way, said he would not have attempted to manually extract my placenta because there was no reason to do so. I had to have physical therapy on my vagina and suffered physical and emotional pain for over a year because of the damage this man caused, not to mention the emotional trauma of this violation.
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