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poor care during pregnency, no baby now!

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A

adelc23

Guest
What is the name of your state? minnesota
i delivered my son at 22 weeks and he didnt make it. i feel it was due to lack of communication between doctors and due to not receiving the care i should have as being single, young, pregnant woman. i am seeking advice legally and personally from who ever will take the time to read about my experience. THANK YOU!
Basiclly in Febuary 2002 i became pregnant, which i expected to be a good thing cause i already had a 4yr old daughter with no problems. i started having problems around 12 wks, i started to bleed, i went to the local hospital (which was the hospital i chose to deliver the baby when i was term) emergency room for care, they told me i could not see any doctors or nurses in labor & delivery until i was 20 weeks. my 1st visit to the ER the couldn't tell me anything only that i could be in the early stages of misscarrying, but the ultrasound and baby heart monitor showed the baby seemed to be okay. about 5 wks passed and i started to bleed again, still had to go to the ER for care, same result baby seemed fine and nothing abnormal for me other than the bleeding, my 3rd visit to the ER was 1 week later, same thing again no answer way i was bleeding. my 4th visit to the hospital was when i was 21 wks. in that 2wks that passed i seen the ob/gyn specialists, 3rd utrasound done and saw my midwife, i was finally told i had a complete placenta previa, where my placenta was covering my cervix, which is not normal it usually attaches to the side of the uterus, but they acted like not anything to worry about until i was term and would have to have a c-section, which was fine as long as the baby was healthy, i was told to avoid any heavy lifting or sex, which i did. on my 4th visit i was sent home by labor & delivery after being monitored for a few hours no special instructions just no lifting or sex. i was back 3 days later for the 5th time of having very abnormal bleeding, i was gonna get sent home by a doctor once again but a nurse from the time befor that saw me and said no way your staying, so i did. i was put on strictly bedrest but this time the bleeding didnt stop. basicly i was monitored every hour or so, but not the baby's heartbeat they didnt take the time to put it on correctly to be recorded on paper, but i still felt him moving around. late evening i started contracting and bleeding even worse, i had asked the nurse if they were going to check me to see if i was dialating, she says no not at this time (?). i was given a shot to stop the contractions and a shot for pain, it helped for a few hours then started to get bad again, i was then given a second set of shots, those didnt help as well as the first set but i was given some pills to help me sleep too. i was wakend by contractions, i called the nurse in to tell her they were getting worse, i had her check the fetal tones, my baby still had a strong heartbeat. about an hour later i called he nurse in again to assist me with the bed pan, i felt like i had to have bowel, i pushed once and told her i think i passed another large bloodclot, cause i was passing bloodclots all evning, she checked and it wasnt a bloodclot, it was my little 14oz. son that i delivered into a bed pan, there were no doctors in my room when it happened, and they nurse told me he was dead. all the doctors could tell me that they were sorry and didnt expect me to deliver him. my son was very much alive no more than an hour befor he came out. i was never vaginally checked for dialation. there was nothing done to my son to see if he could be revived and have a chance to make it. they said he was to little to make it. i beg to differ, many women i know, know someone whose baby's have made it at that early stage but my son wasnt even given the chance. the unfit care i recieved during the 8wks of on and off bleeding could have been done well different and my son might be here now.
am i in the wrong to feel this way, or was i really not given the amount of professional care my child and i needed? can i do anything legally? not only have i lost my child but i am really having a hard time recovering from it mentally.
 
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J

JackSchroder

Guest
adelc23 said:
What is the name of your state? minnesota
i delivered my son at 22 weeks and he didnt make it. i feel it was due to lack of communication between doctors and due to not receiving the care i should have as being single, young, pregnant woman. i am seeking advice legally and personally from who ever will take the time to read about my experience. THANK YOU!
Basiclly in Febuary 2002 i became pregnant, which i expected to be a good thing cause i already had a 4yr old daughter with no problems. i started having problems around 12 wks, i started to bleed, i went to the local hospital (which was the hospital i chose to deliver the baby when i was term) emergency room for care, they told me i could not see any doctors or nurses in labor & delivery until i was 20 weeks. my 1st visit to the ER the couldn't tell me anything only that i could be in the early stages of misscarrying, but the ultrasound and baby heart monitor showed the baby seemed to be okay. about 5 wks passed and i started to bleed again, still had to go to the ER for care, same result baby seemed fine and nothing abnormal for me other than the bleeding, my 3rd visit to the ER was 1 week later, same thing again no answer way i was bleeding. my 4th visit to the hospital was when i was 21 wks. in that 2wks that passed i seen the ob/gyn specialists, 3rd utrasound done and saw my midwife, i was finally told i had a complete placenta previa, where my placenta was covering my cervix, which is not normal it usually attaches to the side of the uterus, but they acted like not anything to worry about until i was term and would have to have a c-section, which was fine as long as the baby was healthy, i was told to avoid any heavy lifting or sex, which i did. on my 4th visit i was sent home by labor & delivery after being monitored for a few hours no special instructions just no lifting or sex. i was back 3 days later for the 5th time of having very abnormal bleeding, i was gonna get sent home by a doctor once again but a nurse from the time befor that saw me and said no way your staying, so i did. i was put on strictly bedrest but this time the bleeding didnt stop. basicly i was monitored every hour or so, but not the baby's heartbeat they didnt take the time to put it on correctly to be recorded on paper, but i still felt him moving around. late evening i started contracting and bleeding even worse, i had asked the nurse if they were going to check me to see if i was dialating, she says no not at this time (?). i was given a shot to stop the contractions and a shot for pain, it helped for a few hours then started to get bad again, i was then given a second set of shots, those didnt help as well as the first set but i was given some pills to help me sleep too. i was wakend by contractions, i called the nurse in to tell her they were getting worse, i had her check the fetal tones, my baby still had a strong heartbeat. about an hour later i called he nurse in again to assist me with the bed pan, i felt like i had to have bowel, i pushed once and told her i think i passed another large bloodclot, cause i was passing bloodclots all evning, she checked and it wasnt a bloodclot, it was my little 14oz. son that i delivered into a bed pan, there were no doctors in my room when it happened, and they nurse told me he was dead. all the doctors could tell me that they were sorry and didnt expect me to deliver him. my son was very much alive no more than an hour befor he came out. i was never vaginally checked for dialation. there was nothing done to my son to see if he could be revived and have a chance to make it. they said he was to little to make it. i beg to differ, many women i know, know someone whose baby's have made it at that early stage but my son wasnt even given the chance. the unfit care i recieved during the 8wks of on and off bleeding could have been done well different and my son might be here now.
am i in the wrong to feel this way, or was i really not given the amount of professional care my child and i needed? can i do anything legally? not only have i lost my child but i am really having a hard time recovering from it mentally.
Your recital lists several areas of malpractice. These are during the early visits to the emergency department. The doctors who saw you over those first weeks when you were bleeding apparently failed to read reports of earlier visits. Had they seen all the reports they might have become a little more thorough in their work, and should have called in an obstetrician. Probably too these doctors in the emergency department were NOT experienced in obstetrics and missed signs that would have been obvious to an obstetrician. Their failure to recognize your problems no doubt contributed to the final outcome, the miscarriage and the death of your son.
Now, when your son was finally delivered, he was probably not going to make it, and if he did survive, he would have been vulnerable to an early death because of all the insults caused by the placenta praevia. You should not expect to find a lawyer willing to take your case based only on the final visits and admission to the hospital. You may find one willing to take your case as a missed diagnosis and mishandling of an obstetric emergency. Go see a lawyer, or several, who are experienced in medical malpractice. Perhaps you will do best by seeing a local lawyer, one from your community not necessarily a malpractice lawyer, and to ask him to help you find a good malpractice lawyer. He will search the State for a lawyer and will work with that lawyer on the local level. Try this first.
 
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ellencee

Senior Member
adelc23
I am not understanding what appears to be your using of the ER for prenatal care until the fetal age of 21 weeks, 9 weeks after your first ER visit, when you state that you had been seen by three OB specialists and the midwife. Somewhere in this scenario has to be a referral to the specialists and for the ultrasounds, which means somewhere the midwife and, or a physician did exactly as standards of care require and obtained appropriate studies for placental placement and fetal health.

Standards of care do indeed allow limiting the availability of nurses or physicians from the OB (labor and delivery) from assessing patients that come into the ER when the pregnancy is less than 20 weeks. The rationale for that is, if a miscarriage is underway, the fetus is not viable. As you stated, at each ER visit you received an ultrasound that showed the fetus to be 'OK' and 'with nothing abnormal'; therefore, you received appropriate care.

Your midwife is the one who bore the responsibility of referring you to an OB physician; then, the OB physician (who diagnosed complete placenta previa at the fetal age of approximately 20 weeks) bore the responsibility for placing you on bedrest for the remainder of the pregnancy. This was indiciated because of your recent history of recurring spontaneous bleeding and because it occurred in the presence of a placenta previa. It is important to note that the diagnosis of placenta previa was made at the appropriate stage of fetal development, that being at the fetal age of approximately 20 weeks, and you were placed on complete bedrest (hospitalized) during the 21st week of pregnancy (even if it did occur as described in the following paragraph).

The 5th time you went to the ER, you were admitted and placed on bedrest in the hospital. This is appropriate treatment and it does not matter (except for bragging rights) that it was a nurse who achieved your admission to the hospital. The fact is, you were admitted and placed on bedrest with skilled monitoring of your condition, thereby receiving proper medical intervention.

Vaginal examination for dilation (or any other reason) was highly contraindicated. The nurse was absolutely correct in not performing a vaginal examination when you requested her to do so (or at any other time during your hospital admission).

The medications that you received seem to be appropriate as you stated they were to stop the contractions, to relieve pain, and to promote sleep.

The presence of fetal heartbeats (heart tones) prior to the premature delivery has absolutely no impact on the outcome or implication of wrongdoing.

It is rare that a fetus of 14 ounces survives and in the cases where it does occur, the delivery of the fetus occurs in the presence of specialized neonatal teams that can immediately begin caring for the infant. Even in those best of circumstances, the chances of survial for the infant are miniscule. The chances of the infant's not being mentally impaired, blind, or otherwise physically impaired are even less.

In order for you to have a meritorious claim of medical malpractice, there has to be an event of professional negligence that caused the demise of your pregnancy when it would have been successfully carried to term and delivered of a healthy infant if the event of professional negligence had not occurred and the resulting damages had to be forseeable (thus, preventable).

The goal of managing complete placenta previa is to protect the mother from excessive and life-threatening blood loss due to spontaneous, severe hemorrhage. As the pregnancy progresses to term, the goal modifies to include safe delivery of the fetus through Cesarean section.

The number one complication of placenta previa is the unpreventable fetal mortality resulting from hypoxia in utero and prematurity. It occurs even in the presence of the mother's being on complete bedrest and all other aspects of maternal and fetal care being rendered appropriately.

If you seek to prove professional negligence as the cause of the death of your infant, you must be able to prove that the number one complication of placenta previa's effect on the fetus would not have occurred in your situation and that it occured only because the care you received was not proper and usual and at the acceptable standard of care.

Talk it over with a medmal attorney in your area, one who specializes in medmal claims and, if available, one who has experience in litigating obstetric medmal claims. You have nothing to lose by accepting a free consultation with such a medmal attorney in your area.

Best wishes,
EC
 
A

adelc23

Guest
ellencee said:
adelc23
I am not understanding what appears to be your using of the ER for prenatal care until the fetal age of 21 weeks, 9 weeks after your first ER visit, when you state that you had been seen by three OB specialists and the midwife. Somewhere in this scenario has to be a referral to the specialists and for the ultrasounds, which means somewhere the midwife and, or a physician did exactly as standards of care require and obtained appropriate studies for placental placement and fetal health.

Standards of care do indeed allow limiting the availability of nurses or physicians from the OB (labor and delivery) from assessing patients that come into the ER when the pregnancy is less than 20 weeks. The rationale for that is, if a miscarriage is underway, the fetus is not viable. As you stated, at each ER visit you received an ultrasound that showed the fetus to be 'OK' and 'with nothing abnormal'; therefore, you received appropriate care.

Your midwife is the one who bore the responsibility of referring you to an OB physician; then, the OB physician (who diagnosed complete placenta previa at the fetal age of approximately 20 weeks) bore the responsibility for placing you on bedrest for the remainder of the pregnancy. This was indiciated because of your recent history of recurring spontaneous bleeding and because it occurred in the presence of a placenta previa. It is important to note that the diagnosis of placenta previa was made at the appropriate stage of fetal development, that being at the fetal age of approximately 20 weeks, and you were placed on complete bedrest (hospitalized) during the 21st week of pregnancy (even if it did occur as described in the following paragraph).

The 5th time you went to the ER, you were admitted and placed on bedrest in the hospital. This is appropriate treatment and it does not matter (except for bragging rights) that it was a nurse who achieved your admission to the hospital. The fact is, you were admitted and placed on bedrest with skilled monitoring of your condition, thereby receiving proper medical intervention.

Vaginal examination for dilation (or any other reason) was highly contraindicated. The nurse was absolutely correct in not performing a vaginal examination when you requested her to do so (or at any other time during your hospital admission).

The medications that you received seem to be appropriate as you stated they were to stop the contractions, to relieve pain, and to promote sleep.

The presence of fetal heartbeats (heart tones) prior to the premature delivery has absolutely no impact on the outcome or implication of wrongdoing.

It is rare that a fetus of 14 ounces survives and in the cases where it does occur, the delivery of the fetus occurs in the presence of specialized neonatal teams that can immediately begin caring for the infant. Even in those best of circumstances, the chances of survial for the infant are miniscule. The chances of the infant's not being mentally impaired, blind, or otherwise physically impaired are even less.

In order for you to have a meritorious claim of medical malpractice, there has to be an event of professional negligence that caused the demise of your pregnancy when it would have been successfully carried to term and delivered of a healthy infant if the event of professional negligence had not occurred and the resulting damages had to be forseeable (thus, preventable).

The goal of managing complete placenta previa is to protect the mother from excessive and life-threatening blood loss due to spontaneous, severe hemorrhage. As the pregnancy progresses to term, the goal modifies to include safe delivery of the fetus through Cesarean section.

The number one complication of placenta previa is the unpreventable fetal mortality resulting from hypoxia in utero and prematurity. It occurs even in the presence of the mother's being on complete bedrest and all other aspects of maternal and fetal care being rendered appropriately.

If you seek to prove professional negligence as the cause of the death of your infant, you must be able to prove that the number one complication of placenta previa's effect on the fetus would not have occurred in your situation and that it occured only because the care you received was not proper and usual and at the acceptable standard of care.

Talk it over with a medmal attorney in your area, one who specializes in medmal claims and, if available, one who has experience in litigating obstetric medmal claims. You have nothing to lose by accepting a free consultation with such a medmal attorney in your area.

Best wishes,
EC
the reason i continued to use the ER was because the 1st,2nd and 3rd times were befor i was 20 weeks so i couldn't go to labor & delivery,it also occured in the middle of the night, and when i tried to get an earlier appointment w/ my midwife they to me to wait til my 20 wk prenatal appointment to see her. the reason i got to go to ob specialist (after being seen at the ER my 3rd time) was because of the ER seeing me 3 times and not being able to help me cause they didnt know what else they could do, ER made me an appointment for the ob, ob made the ultrasound appointment where they found out it was a complete plecenta previa. after that 3 days later was when i saw my midwife. and 11 days after seeing my midwife was when i had my 4th visit to the hopital for the bleeding but i got to go to the labor & delivery for care cause i was 21 weeks but i was sent home. i just feel maybe the ER should have gave the referal to the ob the 2nd time i saw them which was at 17 wks and found out the problem earlier and given special instructions on how to succeed to full term, or maybe when i was 21 wks and seen by labor & delivery they should have put me on complete bedrest then, instead of sending me home.

i am not the type of person to go after anyone for a lawsuit i just was unsure if i received the proper care i need, and wanted an opinion.

thank everyone for yor opinions, everyone opinion counts.
 

ellencee

Senior Member
adelc23
You had no prenatal care at all except for going to the ER until you were 20 weeks?

The ER did not just provide acceptable care, by making the referral to the specialist, the ER went above and beyond what many ERs are required to provide.

I know you are trying to sort this out in your mind and that is a good thing to be doing. It will help you understand this event and to progress through the grief process. It will also better prepare you for any subsequent pregnancy.

The ER had no duty to make a referral after the 2nd visit when your pregnancy was at 17 weeks. At this time, you could have simply been one of the many women who continue to have some amount of bleeding during pregnancy; afterall, the ultrasounds performed during the first two ER visits did not indicate any problem with the fetus or the uterus.

The third visit was astutely recognized as possibly indicating a problem that as yet was undetected and undiagnosed.

Possibly, on visit 4, you should have been admitted or placed on complete bedrest. That decision would have been based on clinical findings. If the clinical findings indicate that you should have been admitted, then that may be less than the acceptable standard of care. If that proves to be the case, that leaves you with the issue of 'would it have prevented the premature birth and resulting demise of the fetus?'. The answer to that is going to be, 'no; it was not possible to guarantee a full term pregnancy or a viable fetus at birth'.

At this time, pregnancy of 21 weeks, the focus of care and the goal of care is to maintain the wellness of the mother. Unless that is done, there is no reason to be concerned about the fetus.

I have been a member of the neonatal team that recovered infants of this size and gestational age. One infant of the many who were delivered at this gestational age lived for a few hours.
I assure you, at the gestational age of 21-22 weeks, the baby's weight is not the only part of the baby that has not fully developed.

Now, if you had gone home after visit 4 and died of a sudden hemorrhage, then your estate would more likely than not have a meritorious claim of malpractice. But--you did not die or hemorrhage to any degree of damage between visit 4 and visit 5. Therefore, there is no claim of malpractice as regards your health and care.

Let's move forward in time and place this same situtation in a pregnancy of 31 weeks. Then, the fetus is at a more viable stage of development and body weight. If you had been sent home with no instructions for complete bedrest, and with no emergency managment aware of your condition and location, and with no blood reserve of at least two units on standby for you, THEN we would be talking professional negligence that resulted in the wrongful death of your infant. Even in those circumstances, there still would be a plausible defense of fetal viability. It would be much easier to assert the failure to provide the 'best chance' of survival, though.

I hope that by expanding my response, I have assisted you in understanding the process of this sad event.

Best wishes,
EC
 
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