LAWSUIT

They shouldn't have broken her water OR started pit.

Sorry for your loss.. my prayers are with your family.
At 17 weeks with bulging membranes and a visable head, I don't think the outcome would have been different without the AROM or pit. LD probably turned the pit off because the labor was progressing and they were thinking of the mother's comfort.

But how could they have seen membranes and a head, claiming 4 cm, but half an hour later when L&D finally got involved, there was no presenting part and only 1 cm dilated?????????????
I think something is rotten somewhere in that ER.
They turned the pit off because they finally called the attending OB and she had a cow at them.
I appreciate your thoughts, BBnurse34, but it didn't happen the way they claim it did, I just don't see it.

I'm an ER nurse, have NEVER EVER seen pit started on an ER pt. I've also never seen membranes ruptured in the ER. Pregnant pts in the ER at my facility are initially examined by ER doc, with FHT by nurse. The OB is then consulted it the cc involves the pregnancy.

In a case like this at our hospital, the pt would have been rushed to OB immediately after physical exam findings. The only time ER does significant intervention is with the rare pt who presents crowning and we have to deliver RIGHT NOW. Even then, the LD nurses and any OB/CNM in house come down if they can get there in the few minutes we have.

Karo, who ordered the membranes ruptured and the pit started? The ER doc?

I wouldn't jump to any conclusions until you see the chart. When that happens, all your questions will be answered for sure.

Yes it was the ER doc. As far as we know, they didn't contact L&D until afterward, and the attending OB in another city wasn't contacted until after they moved her to L&D, and she ordered her transferred to the hospital in the other city.
They said it all happened bam, bam,bam, one thing after the other with no apparent time for thinking or consulting, just do it and get it over with was their apparent rationale.

Karo, I am soooo sorry this happened. I agree with those that say to get a copy of the chart.

Then turn that desire to break things into a lawsuit!