“I think what accountability looks like is\u2026you guys hearing the story, hearing the facts and doing something about it,\u201d Victoria Vasser said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vasser hired midwife Sizzly Auer, who also goes by Sizzly Buchanan Gibb, in 2021 when she was pregnant with her first child, Dylan. During delivery, Auer pulled Dylan\u2019s head with force to free him after he got stuck behind Vasser\u2019s pubic bone. Records show this resulted in some of the nerves that control movement in Dylan\u2019s arm and hand being destroyed. He is now unable to use his right arm.<\/p>\n
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RELATED: ‘I want her to be held accountable’ | Midwife owes local mom $12M after birth injury<\/a><\/p>\n Auer\u2019s licensing file with the Florida Department of Health revealed the state had granted her an insurance exemption after she reported she was not delivering babies in Florida. Dylan\u2019s birth, social media videos and Auer\u2019s own records to the state suggest otherwise.\u00a0<\/p>\n Auer also maintained her midwifery license after the Agency for Healthcare Administration fined her $33,000 in 2015 for running an unlicensed birth center. An agency spokesperson said the fine remained unpaid.<\/p>\n RELATED: \u2018She would have bled out\u2019: Family says Pasco County midwife put mom, baby in danger<\/a><\/p>\n AHCA denied Auer\u2019s most recent application to be a Florida Medicaid Provider after 10 Investigates uncovered the agency paid her more than $326,000 in Florida Medicaid dollars despite not carrying state-required insurance and owing the agency a large debt.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It seems to me that there’s a lack of coordination between AHCA and the Department of Health,\u201d said Tampa attorney Olivia Kronenberg, who represented Vasser in a medical malpractice lawsuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n AHCA oversees the Florida Medicaid program and licensing for birth centers. The Florida Department of Health oversees licensing for individual midwives. In this case, when AHCA fined the midwife for running the unlicensed birth center, it\u2019s unclear whether the agencies ever communicated. That\u2019s because her license remained in good standing with the Florida Department of Health, and AHCA continued to pay her with state Medicaid money.\u00a0<\/p>\n RELATED: State terminates Medicaid contract for uninsured midwife after 10 Investigates uncovers violations<\/a><\/p>\n “From what they tell me is that the systems don’t communicate,\u201d Vasser said. \u201cWell, maybe they should talk. Maybe you guys should talk and so less of these things can happen. So overall, I would like to see some rules and regulations, policy changes.”<\/p>\n Earlier this year, House Minority Leader and state senator-elect Fentrice Driskell (D-67) acknowledged change might be necessary.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It might take a legislative solution,\u201d she said. \u201cIn 2027, if the state agencies are failing to act, we need to look at this.\u201d<\/p>\n Driskell has not yet stated official plans for a new bill, but it\u2019s action Vasser says she wants to see soon to keep moms and babies from the setbacks she and Dylan now face for a lifetime.\u00a0<\/p>\n Emerald Morrow is an investigative reporter with\u00a010 Tampa Bay News. Like her on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>. You can also email her at\u00a0emorrow@10tampabay.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victoria Vasser says the state needs tougher laws after the state continued to pay an uninsured midwife accused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-428285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}