My question involves medical malpractice in the state of: New York
Ok - sorry if this is not that clear I am not the best story teller, so I will try to articulate the situation with bullet points.
My questions are -
Is this case worthy? I just do not think writing a letter to the hospital to complain would really hold the people accountable for their mistakes. :wallbang:
Any recommendations of who I should call?
- Me and my wife were expecting a baby
- No major problems during prenatal care. Everything seemed normal
- My wife went to full term (38 weeks according to the hospital/midwifes that were advising us)
- My wife went to a regular weekly check-up @ 38 weeks
- At this check up we did standard blood work to test for preeclampsia
- Her test came back positive due a intermittent high-blood pressure result and high levels of protein
- Our midwife/nurse ordered a 24 hour urine test to confirm the results
- Results of the 24 urine test came back with very high levels of protein in her urine
Small tangent -
Later (during labor) we found out that the level of protein in my wife's urine was higher than anyone we talked to had ever seen. I am no expert, but In my mind it would raise the question of a false-positive result; As my wife was relatively A-symptomatic out side of one irregular high blood pressure result in combination with this "extrodoary high" level of protein in her urine. Probably unrelated as I am not really at odds why we needed an induction. I just think this adds some context.
*As my understanding of diagnosing preeclampsia you need to have high blood pressure and high protein content in urine
-
-My wife called our midwife/nurse to confirm a follow up appointment for the results of our 24 hour urine test
-We were told that we to check into the hospital immediately for an induction
-We arrive at the hospital to be admitted for an induction into labor
-Every thing is pretty standard in-terms of the induction
-The hospital staff is comprised of:
-Our midwifes who work out of the medical clinic from where we receive our prenatal care and hospital staff.
-Our midwife's main goals are basically ensure that everything happens natural up into the point that ether my wife's safety or our child's safety is compromised.
-And to help us stay informed about all of the procedures that may need to be done and to explain the "technical" side of the birthing process at our level. or in other words to help the hospital establish informed consent.
The hospital staff i.e Resident nurses / Doctors / Anestigologist / Surgeons ect... are there to do what they do.
Anther small tangent.
Also there seemed to be a lot of tension between our midwifes and hospital staff. In terms of who can do what, and what everything meant. And it was very apparent.
- ok on to the labor -
-We (nurses and midwifes) start induction by administering my wife poticin
-Contractions go on for about an hour
-Midwifes and Nurse's ask us if they can break my wife's water
-Me and My wife talk about this and agree.
-We tell the midwifes and nurses that we are scared of things escalating to a c-section and also we are not doctors and we will trust what they think if they acknowledge that this is the best thing to do.
- They say that this is standard practice when they are inducing labor
- Next my wife requests and epidural and it is administered
- Contractions increase but my wife never dilates past 7cm and we need to be at ten
- At this point it seems like a downhill battle
- They use another monitor internal monitor to check for contractions and administer fluid to the baby as the water was broke and a slight decrease in hart rate started to be noticed and the fluid is meant to help with decreases in the babies heart beat
- this goes on for over and hour or two with slight decreases in the babies hart beat when the contractions - they say what we are seeing is normal but it needs to be monitored
-during this time my wife was asked to change positions constantly for and hour or two with each contraction to find a "sweet spot" for the baby during each contraction
- We seemed to find a good spot then shortly after the close monitoring ended
- Soon after it seemed that the epidural was no longer working
- Their still were drugs in the epidermal machine and it was still pumping but it seemed my wife was not getting any relief from them as my wife was really feeling pain during these contractions -
- we asked to have some one help us fix this
- the nurse called for the Anestigologist to "top her off"
- I think the nurse assumed she needed a different type/additional drug
- we waited 20-30 minutes for the Anestigologist
-called the nurse again
- a different nurse came in with our nurse who came in right behind her and told the new nurse that she called the Anestigologist and he is coming down to top her off.
- Our then nurse explained the same thing to us and that she was on her break and thats why the other nurse came in.
- Then she assured us that Anestigologist is on his way down in about 15 minutes or so.
- 15-20 minutes later team of doctors and nurses come in the room and hook up a more accurate monitor for the babies heart beat
In less than one contraction monitor is in
The next contraction comes and the baby heart beat is dropping to about halfway down from a good 150 bpm
Last tangent
Looking back one of my regrets is... I did not interrupt a room full of doctors in a critical situation to point out the obvious. I just did think I would be helping. Only if I had know... I digress
-I did not mention anything to them as it seemed to a very urgent situation
-I felt like I would be interrupting a critical process
-It was obvious that my wife was in pain.
-The nurse we told that there was an issue with an epidural was in the room
-There were at least 2 doctors 1 surgeon and many other people in the room.
-I thought one of these people in the room is the Anestigologist
From delivery room to Or table takes no more than 5 minutes and I would even say that is actually longer - I could of been closer to 3 or 2 minutes. But everything at this point seemed to slow down for me.
.. and the next part is really hard for me to read or write. As this is painful for me to even think of.
- I get this blue suit to put on in the delivery room and my wife has already been pushed out of the room while im trying to put it on
- The midwife helps me gather our belongings and tells me she will take care of our stuff
- A nurse walks me down the hall to the front of the operating room door where my wife is
- The nurse is helping put on my mask and making sure I am not going to faint
- I see them start to prep my wife thew small opening in the door by throwing iodine on her getting the blue curtain up that I am going to stand behind
-The door closes
-I hear my wife scream in pain
-Are waiting to be let in
- Some on comes out and says this is now a "stat c-section" and I can't come in
-I hear my wife a little more after this saying no no no!!
- in about 20 minutes
- The baby is born healthy
- In About 15 get to come in a see the baby and take a pic
- I wait for my wife as my baby is in the nursery
- I think the Anestigologist (some one from the operating room) comes out and tells me
1. My wifes epidural was not working
2. So they had to put her under
3. Thats why you couldn't come in
4. Your wife is ok and your baby is healthy
- my wife is rolled out and and is now waking up from being under and is still saying no no no... no no no... as she was when she went under. only now she is incoherent and waking up from medication
-after my wife wakes up and can talk she told me
- in the operating room
-she told them that the idodine was cold when they poured it on to her stomach
-she told them that she could feel her legs and
-she tells me she felt the c-section incision and thats when she screamed
-she then told me they said the epidural was not working ( the Anestigologist confirmed this with me earlier but left out the detail that my wife went under the scalpel and felt it)
- the room became very chaotic
- people began to re-try to administer drugs by epidural and test to see if was NOW working by prodding her with the scalpel
- she told them it still hurt
- then she said they started to administer drugs via her gas mask to knock her out except she felt like she was choking and fought them because she felt there was no O2 coming threw her mask.
ok - emotionally that was really hard for me to write towards the end of this
sorry if It is hard to read. I did not think it would be this long.
Thanks in advance -
Ok - sorry if this is not that clear I am not the best story teller, so I will try to articulate the situation with bullet points.
My questions are -
Is this case worthy? I just do not think writing a letter to the hospital to complain would really hold the people accountable for their mistakes. :wallbang:
Any recommendations of who I should call?
- Me and my wife were expecting a baby
- No major problems during prenatal care. Everything seemed normal
- My wife went to full term (38 weeks according to the hospital/midwifes that were advising us)
- My wife went to a regular weekly check-up @ 38 weeks
- At this check up we did standard blood work to test for preeclampsia
- Her test came back positive due a intermittent high-blood pressure result and high levels of protein
- Our midwife/nurse ordered a 24 hour urine test to confirm the results
- Results of the 24 urine test came back with very high levels of protein in her urine
Small tangent -
Later (during labor) we found out that the level of protein in my wife's urine was higher than anyone we talked to had ever seen. I am no expert, but In my mind it would raise the question of a false-positive result; As my wife was relatively A-symptomatic out side of one irregular high blood pressure result in combination with this "extrodoary high" level of protein in her urine. Probably unrelated as I am not really at odds why we needed an induction. I just think this adds some context.
*As my understanding of diagnosing preeclampsia you need to have high blood pressure and high protein content in urine
-
-My wife called our midwife/nurse to confirm a follow up appointment for the results of our 24 hour urine test
-We were told that we to check into the hospital immediately for an induction
-We arrive at the hospital to be admitted for an induction into labor
-Every thing is pretty standard in-terms of the induction
-The hospital staff is comprised of:
-Our midwifes who work out of the medical clinic from where we receive our prenatal care and hospital staff.
-Our midwife's main goals are basically ensure that everything happens natural up into the point that ether my wife's safety or our child's safety is compromised.
-And to help us stay informed about all of the procedures that may need to be done and to explain the "technical" side of the birthing process at our level. or in other words to help the hospital establish informed consent.
The hospital staff i.e Resident nurses / Doctors / Anestigologist / Surgeons ect... are there to do what they do.
Anther small tangent.
Also there seemed to be a lot of tension between our midwifes and hospital staff. In terms of who can do what, and what everything meant. And it was very apparent.
- ok on to the labor -
-We (nurses and midwifes) start induction by administering my wife poticin
-Contractions go on for about an hour
-Midwifes and Nurse's ask us if they can break my wife's water
-Me and My wife talk about this and agree.
-We tell the midwifes and nurses that we are scared of things escalating to a c-section and also we are not doctors and we will trust what they think if they acknowledge that this is the best thing to do.
- They say that this is standard practice when they are inducing labor
- Next my wife requests and epidural and it is administered
- Contractions increase but my wife never dilates past 7cm and we need to be at ten
- At this point it seems like a downhill battle
- They use another monitor internal monitor to check for contractions and administer fluid to the baby as the water was broke and a slight decrease in hart rate started to be noticed and the fluid is meant to help with decreases in the babies heart beat
- this goes on for over and hour or two with slight decreases in the babies hart beat when the contractions - they say what we are seeing is normal but it needs to be monitored
-during this time my wife was asked to change positions constantly for and hour or two with each contraction to find a "sweet spot" for the baby during each contraction
- We seemed to find a good spot then shortly after the close monitoring ended
- Soon after it seemed that the epidural was no longer working
- Their still were drugs in the epidermal machine and it was still pumping but it seemed my wife was not getting any relief from them as my wife was really feeling pain during these contractions -
- we asked to have some one help us fix this
- the nurse called for the Anestigologist to "top her off"
- I think the nurse assumed she needed a different type/additional drug
- we waited 20-30 minutes for the Anestigologist
-called the nurse again
- a different nurse came in with our nurse who came in right behind her and told the new nurse that she called the Anestigologist and he is coming down to top her off.
- Our then nurse explained the same thing to us and that she was on her break and thats why the other nurse came in.
- Then she assured us that Anestigologist is on his way down in about 15 minutes or so.
- 15-20 minutes later team of doctors and nurses come in the room and hook up a more accurate monitor for the babies heart beat
In less than one contraction monitor is in
The next contraction comes and the baby heart beat is dropping to about halfway down from a good 150 bpm
Last tangent
Looking back one of my regrets is... I did not interrupt a room full of doctors in a critical situation to point out the obvious. I just did think I would be helping. Only if I had know... I digress
-I did not mention anything to them as it seemed to a very urgent situation
-I felt like I would be interrupting a critical process
-It was obvious that my wife was in pain.
-The nurse we told that there was an issue with an epidural was in the room
-There were at least 2 doctors 1 surgeon and many other people in the room.
-I thought one of these people in the room is the Anestigologist
From delivery room to Or table takes no more than 5 minutes and I would even say that is actually longer - I could of been closer to 3 or 2 minutes. But everything at this point seemed to slow down for me.
.. and the next part is really hard for me to read or write. As this is painful for me to even think of.
- I get this blue suit to put on in the delivery room and my wife has already been pushed out of the room while im trying to put it on
- The midwife helps me gather our belongings and tells me she will take care of our stuff
- A nurse walks me down the hall to the front of the operating room door where my wife is
- The nurse is helping put on my mask and making sure I am not going to faint
- I see them start to prep my wife thew small opening in the door by throwing iodine on her getting the blue curtain up that I am going to stand behind
-The door closes
-I hear my wife scream in pain
-Are waiting to be let in
- Some on comes out and says this is now a "stat c-section" and I can't come in
-I hear my wife a little more after this saying no no no!!
- in about 20 minutes
- The baby is born healthy
- In About 15 get to come in a see the baby and take a pic
- I wait for my wife as my baby is in the nursery
- I think the Anestigologist (some one from the operating room) comes out and tells me
1. My wifes epidural was not working
2. So they had to put her under
3. Thats why you couldn't come in
4. Your wife is ok and your baby is healthy
- my wife is rolled out and and is now waking up from being under and is still saying no no no... no no no... as she was when she went under. only now she is incoherent and waking up from medication
-after my wife wakes up and can talk she told me
- in the operating room
-she told them that the idodine was cold when they poured it on to her stomach
-she told them that she could feel her legs and
-she tells me she felt the c-section incision and thats when she screamed
-she then told me they said the epidural was not working ( the Anestigologist confirmed this with me earlier but left out the detail that my wife went under the scalpel and felt it)
- the room became very chaotic
- people began to re-try to administer drugs by epidural and test to see if was NOW working by prodding her with the scalpel
- she told them it still hurt
- then she said they started to administer drugs via her gas mask to knock her out except she felt like she was choking and fought them because she felt there was no O2 coming threw her mask.
ok - emotionally that was really hard for me to write towards the end of this
sorry if It is hard to read. I did not think it would be this long.
Thanks in advance -