Scandal Ridden NJ Anesthesiologist Sued for Botched Birth

By: Dimitry Kolishavsky

A NJ doctor is being sued for allegedly mishandling a delivery.

As reported by the NY Post, in July, New Jersey anesthesiologist Selvia Zaklama was part of a medical team at Hoboken University Medical Center whose alleged “negligence and reckless behavior’’ left a new mom barely able to move or speak after delivery.

Dr. Zaklama, 67, also became infamous in 1999 when she was accused of hitting a pregnant woman with her Mercedes in Jersey City, NJ — and then posing as just a Good Samaritan rushing to the scene to offer help. “I don’t exactly know why she’s still practicing,’’ the crash victim, Yolanda Rios, told The Post.

The new Hudson County lawsuit was brought to the superior-court alleging the doctor improperly administered anesthesia and failed to appropriately treat a first time mom during her emergency C-section last summer. Estefania Mesa, 28, was in labor when she stopped breathing, her blood pressure dropped, and she went into cardiac arrest, according to the suit, filed Dec. 31, 2020, by her partner. It took the medical team 10 minutes to call a code, and doctors botched Mesa’s resuscitation by neglecting to follow the guidelines prescribed by the American Heart Association, the suit alleges.

Mesa’s heart was only restarted 16 minutes after she stopped breathing, and no defibrillator was used, the suit claims.

While Mesa’s baby girl, Emma, is “doing well,’’ the mother is still in a minimally conscious state at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in Saddle Brook, NJ, as per the suit. “Estefania’s once bright future as a mother and plans to marry her life partner were obliterated by the combined negligence and reckless conduct by the defendant’s in this lawsuit,” the lawsuit claims.

Eduardo Argueta, Mesa’s partner, told The Post that he was appalled upon hearing Dr. Zaklama’s alleged history. “I wouldn’t even let her go in the [operating] room if I had known,’’ he said.

Rios, the victim of the alleged hit-and-run in 1998, was seven months pregnant at the time and had lost her baby and suffered a broken leg among other injuries due to the crash. Zaklama was praised as a good Samaritan hero who had found her on the street, driven her to the hospital and even stayed in the operating room for the emergency surgery, as per the Post. Only later did authorities learn that she was the one who had hit the woman, thanks to witnesses who identified her car as the crash vehicle. In 1999, Zaklama had been indicted on charges of tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice and hindering apprehension, but her record has since been cleared.