Now that I've had dinner, I also know that most ERs won't even call OB if you are less than 20 weeks. This happened to me when I was 19 weeks and in FLA.

I'm so sorry this happened!
I'm still confused about her being discharged with such an acute infection.Please tell me it was not some ******** managed care option....

My last hospital's ER would cal us in L&D if a woman was 4 weeks pregnant.... even if the problem was a broken ankle!

No I cannot tell you with any certainty that it wasn't because of managed care. They had Anthem, which was asked about ten times and before she even started into hard labor or before the baby died they were telling her she would go home four or five hours after the baby was delivered. I guess we are fortunate they actually kept her 18 hours after it came. Presumably bedrest and oral ABT can be given at home and the pt observed. Like the family is going to ask her how much she is bleeding, know to obs for shock, etc. And would they have enough sense to know to bring her back and for what symptoms? Not denigrating them, but your average person either panics over nothing or ignores everything, in my experience.

I am so sorry for you all That is hard. And then all of this on top of it

First, I would be hauling butt back to the ER if I were bleeding that much..she may have some retained placenta if she is bleeding that much. It should be like after a regular delivery, not that much blood...that sounds like way too much. And as for the infection...I would really question that too...she sounds like she needs to be on IV antibiotics. Did she see her regular OB? If she was at a bigger center, I would really insist on seeing an attending, not a resident. Did they do a D/C after?

If her water was bulging thru the cervix, no they can't do a circulage. The best they can do is put you in head down. If they aren't contracting, just dilating, unfortunately, there isn't anything they can do

And I am sure that the others meant 17 weeks early, which would be a 23 weeker. No baby has ever survived at 17 weeks. Most of the time, they won't try to stop full blown labor until 21 weeks.

I am sooo sorry once again.

We' have pt's come in that have a bulging bag of water, dilated 5+ and we put the min severe trendelenburg, put a rescue circlage in and start MGSO4, as well as antibiotics, we recently had someone at 16 weeks come in with twins like that and she made it to about 30 weeks, the babies are now home and fine, anyway, my point is....seems to me the ER had no freaking clue what they were doing, where i work at, the ER won't even LOOk at a pregnant person over 12 weeks gestation!

OBNurseShelley, thank you. That is exactly what I thought should be done, not sure of the specifics, but seemed some course of action to at least ATTEMPT to save the baby would have been the proper course for them to take. Of course I wasn't there at the time, it wasn't my hospital, not even my daughter having the baby, but seems there could have been something like that done.
The OB said it could have been tried, wasn't sure it would have worked, but by the time she was consulted it was way too late.

My almost DIL is feeling somewhat better, her temp is down, still on bedrest for another 5 days, have postponed the memorial for the baby until she is up and about.
This all sucks. Bad. I want to break things.

Im so sorry for your loss. I can say in my opinion this is one major cluster F%%%, with the amount of bleeding that you reported that she was having, she should have had a d&c done just to evacuate the uterus, if there were an underling infection it would have been located and treated immediately. The normal amount of bleeding would have been the same of a delivery its self, the clue of something going wrong is the fact that the bleeding is heavy, and saturating as you said. If it is possible I suggest that you get a certified copy of the chart which the patient can request for, and review it, find a ER and a OB nurse and go through every inch of it. Im sure you will find clues that may help you to better understand the care given. I do hope that she also recieves help with her grief.
Zoe

{{{{{Karo}}}}, I don't know the first thing about OB nursing, but I want to tell you how sorry I am that this happened to your family. Sounds like some big-time negligence was done here.
{{{{Karo}}}}}

I really appreciate all the information and support you guys are giving me. This has been one of the most horrific weekends of my life, and it has been so draining trying to be there for these kids when all I want to do is scream and break things and cry, but instead have to be strong and hold them up while they do those things.