Midwife accused of abandoning Indiana patient records

MUNCIE, Ind. — A midwife is denying allegations by the Indiana attorney general’s office that she abandoned the medical records of about 1,600 patients at her former Indianapolis office.

Officials say nurse midwife Barb Bechtel ignored a deadline set by the building owner to collect the records and that she told the attorney general’s office that she didn’t intend to get them.

Bechtel tells The Star Press that the allegations are absurd but wouldn’t discuss her defense.

Bechtel says she delivered more than 500 babies in Muncie and Indianapolis during a 14-year career as a midwife before closing her practice last year. She now is a midwife at a New York City birthing center.

The attorney general’s office secured the records and is seeking disciplinary action against Bechtel’s medical licenses.