Tw tramatic birth
Sorry this is long
I'm wanting to know if I should take this further.
I had my 3rd child this year. When we arrived at the hospital, my waters had broken and I was having contactions 4 minutes apart. The midwife was very blase, didn't check how many cms I was, just stated that I didn't look like I was in active labour yet and I should go home. I asked to stay a little longer to see how things progress, which she said was fine, but she wouldn't be calling my private Dr as she didn't want to wake him until she really had to.
In less than 30 minutes I was pushing, it was too late for pain relief and when they called my dr he was unavailable.
In the birth suite the midwife said the babies heart rate was dropping so they called in a public dr. Bub was born not crying but they said it was fine.
The dr left as he was needed elsewhere.
I was haemorrhaging and falling in amd out of consciousness. The midwives where pushing on my stomach and the pain was unbelievable. The Dr popped back in to see how we were doing, be immediately took over. I was given lots of medication to stop the bleeding, the dr left again and the midwife cleaned me up but seemed in a rush to get me out of the birthing suite and into the care of different nurses when I clearly wasn't ok yet.
My partner looked after bub and I met the baby the next morning. I was still bleeding alot and very weak but was also running on the new mum emotion.
I left hospital but returned a few days later via ambulance in extreme pain, i couldn't walk or talk, only scream. I had sharp pains in my stomach and losing quite a bit of blood. At the hospital a junior dr was about to run tests to see what was wrong. But then a senior Dr took over, said it was just after birth pains (made me feel like I was being very dramatic) I felt very silly. The pain continued.
In this time I also seen two gps, one said it was nothing time wouldn't handle and the other said gallstones.
A few days after I heard and felt a big pop sound in my stomach, instantly my vision went blurry, I was in extreme pain, I could hardly walk. I went back to the hospital and got the original student Dr who diagnosed me with retained placenta, a bad uti and mastitis. I was extremely sick. I had to have a d&c, 4 days of iv antibiotics. My baby spent most of that time in the nursery. The d&c so had was so rough I was still in pain 5 weeks after and have a permanent sore small bruise on my stomach. The midwife that was there when I gave birth came and told me the monitor had moved and wasn't picking up my babies heart rate but mine instead. This has left me feeling sick that he wasn't properly monitored and is there a reason why he didn't cry after being born?
I've suffered terrible postpartum depression, I had trouble bonding with my baby. I have no faith in the medical system. I feel really let down, I felt scared. Family had to take lots of time off work which hurt financially.
It's taken me a long time to recover and I'm in a good place with my baby now but I feel like I need closure, I lay awake for hours at night and replay it all in my head.
My family have urged me to take this further. Do you think it's worth it or is this a common occurrence? Has anyone taken this to a lawyer? What steps should I take next?
14 Replies
Further as in what exactly ?
I think you need to seek counselling.
Have you spoken to the hospital about your experience? So they can look into it further?
As in put in a complaint to the hospital
I’d put in a complaint.
Wow, that’s horrific, seek legal counsel.
I was in a different situation and a lawyer said they will look at damages, so at the very least the loss of income your family suffered should be compensated.
As you and bubs are fine now they probably won’t award pain and suffering.
Unbelievable negligence, I can't believe they sent you home without a DC, let alone a scan to check for retained placenta! So many mistakes from everyone that hospital needs serious looking into, please make a complaint.
I've heard so many birth horror stories in my time and I'm almost 50 yrs old. Unfortunately these things are rarely a sueable offence in court, its time consuming, expensive, and almost always never gains a win.
I'm sorry this happened to you xx
Medical negligence is very hard to prove.
You can certainly make a complaint detailing your experience.
You def need to seek out a counsellor to help you process and move forward.
Child Birth is traumatic! It is emotive and it is downright scary. I assume you and your child are healthy - that’s the best outcome we can hope for.
Consult a lawyer. However, you should understand that very few law firms do medical malpractice law in Australia as it is incredibly difficult to win. In Australia, you need to prove gross negligence, not just poor treatment. This means that they need to have made decisions that demonstrated complete incompetence. If there was the slightest chance their conclusions might have been correct you won't win. You should also consider, if you won, how much you would be entitled to seek compensation for. Essentially, a small amount wages. If you lose, and cases take years FYI, they can recover the full cost of their legal fees. It will be 100s of 1000s and you will also owe yours unless you go no win, no pay and they are extremely picky about what cases they take on.
I think the responses telling you to seek counselling are good. You could also put in a complaint. It might result in some doctors having the case reviewed for learning purposes if it could have been better handled.
So I too heamorraghed due to retained placenta and my story is completely different to yours so I'm shocked that you were treated like this. Retained placenta is reasonably common and one of the main reasons for serious heamorraghe so for them to miss it when it's staring them in the face is just crazy! I think you definitely need to make a complaint, not just with the hospital I would go even further and complain to the health department. They failed you numerous times. They failed to check the placenta correctly at birth, they failed to check why you were hemorrhaging, they failed to make sure the bleeding had slowed before release, then the emergency department failed miserably. How sad that a student doctors concerns were shut down by a seniour doctor doing guess work, they should have ran tests before letting you go. You have enough proof of all of this as it would be documented. I'm really sad for you, I can't imagine how hard it would have been trying to bond with your baby.
Adding - pressing on your belly is how to apply pressure to stop a vaginal haemorrhage, they weren't trying to hurt you by doing that but I know it feels bloody horrible when you've just had a baby x
Despite the understandably traumatic experience, one thing that jumped out at me is that you're losing sleep and replaying it in your head. Regardless of what happened, if it's effecting you this way, please find a counselor to help you work through it. You need to heal
A formal complaint to the hospital and if you really want to make a difference a letter to your local MP focusing on advocating for continuity of care for pregnancy, birth and post-partum in your area.
Take it further- you could’ve died and your baby could’ve died
I lost 2L through PP haemmorhage, and that was when it was dealt with immediately with my 1st. Put on antibiotics too.
My 2nd birth my childs HR was monitored and the paediatric team called in for him in case he wasn’t responsive when born.
I had the same private OB for both births and couldn’t fault him or the midwives.
After the PPH I suffered pnd- did they even check your iron levels? I was offered a transfusion but got through with iron supplements.
Your whole birthing story is sheer negligence! Make a complaint through the hospital and back it up with a lawyer 😥
I'm so sorry you had such an awful experience. My sister recently had a traumatic birth in a regional town and she found out later on that several other ladies on the ward that night haemorrhaged too. I also know of a few other girls who've experienced traumatic births at this particular hospital too. Just wondering if you are able to share where this happened? It would be great to see a change happen. Hope you are both doing well now Mama xx
It is what it is. You and the baby are ok and that’s the main thing. They obviously did something right else you wouldn’t be here and nor would your baby. It’s life, it’s part of having kids. Everyone has a different story and some aren’t as lucky as yours. Just be grateful for your beautiful healthy bub and focus on the positives. Don’t know what taking it further would do? seek councilling for your own issues with it.