18 week grandbaby died, questions

Specialties NICU

Published

Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

My son's fiancee was 18 weeks pregnant and went into labor Saturday afternoon. They went to the closest ER, not the one where she was going to deliver, an hour away. This ER said she was 4 cm dilated, that the bag of waters was protruding AND they could see the head. They broke her water, put her on a pit drip and sent her to L&D. When she got to L&D, they said she was only 1 cm dilated, and couldn't figure out why they broke her waterand stopped the pit drip. They then transferred her to the hospital she originally was supposed to be at.

To make a long story short, the baby God bless his little heart, lived inside her until 9 pm Sunday night, when we watched his little heart, which had been beating so strongly, always 130 or over, suddenly give out on the monitor. She delivered him at ten oh six.

Now a couple of questions:

1. How could she have been 4cm and half an hour later been 1cm? Is that really possible? Or is this ER, which is in a one horse town just full of idiots?

2. If they hadn't broken her water, could they have tried to stop the labor and do a cervical cerclage once she was stable, if she did stop laboring?

3. And they thought she was fine, out of danger, sent us home to sleep around 1 am Monday, she spiked a temp over 105, has a massive uterine infection, they sent her home last night anyway on many antibiotics, she is bleeding so hard she is wearing her peripad inside an adult diaper. How much chance is there this 18 year old girl will be able to have another baby, will this permanantly damage her uterus?

4. And finally, another family member has had a child in a huge children's hospital for several months, and said they saw a 17 week baby born, treated and go home after 5 months in the NICU. Is this really possible, or are they maybe hearing the baby was 17 weeks early instead of 17 weeks along????????????

Thanks for listening, and hopefully for answering.

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Well, first off, let me say how sorry l am for your loss, certainly hope this young lady recovers fully and quickly....l can't even imagine why the water was broke and the pit was started in ER..(l am ER nurse).....surely this is where this raging infection was introduced.....as far as a 17 weeker surviving, l doubt it very much. l was caring for a mom who's labor was induced at 17 wks because she discovered she had Hodgkin's dse...The baby was perfectly formed, only weight 1/2 LB was about the length of my hand, eyes still fused, can't even imagine equipment that small that would be required for a baby that small.....also cann't imagine a babe that early surviving without massive ongoing problems......if it were me, l would be looking further into the actions that were taken in that ER...................LR

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Wanted to add my condolences. There has never been a 17 week fetus survive to my knowledge. The borderline babies are at about 23-24 weeks and they tend to have many problems if they survive.

As for the vag exam: they are somewhat subjective because 2 people will estimate differently, but 1 and 4 is a fairly big diffence. Then again the nurses' 1 could've been more like 2 and the ERs 4 could've been more like 3. I would look into the situation with your regular doctor.

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Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

Yes, our baby was perfectly formed too, with his little eyes still shut. He weighed 5.1oz. The regular dr., not being at the first hospital said the best she could do was conjecture that the bag was protruding through the cervix at the first hospital, and they thinking it was inevitable that the baby would be lost was trying to go ahead and get her to deliver it. Of course the ER was trying to tell her she was only 11 or 12 weeks too which was wrong. Why the ER didn't just call up to L/D in the first place and get someone with pregnancy experience down there first is beyond me, since they seemed to have just been flying by the seat of their pants.

Once she is well, she and my son are going to a lawyer about this first ER. Not only did the infection probably come from there, but also like I said about the cervical cerclage, it was an option with the bag still intact, not likely it would have held but it was a possibility per the OB. Said it would probably have to be done with the next pregnancy as a precaution by the 3rd month.

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Oh I am so sorry! I would also say that if her bleeding doesn't slow soon, she needs to see the doc asap!

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Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

The docs say that the excess bleeding is due to the infection. It has lessened some today, of course it gets worse when she gets upset and every day she gets into a huge emotional upset, understandably. She is on complete bedrest with very limited BRP until next Tuesday at the least, perhaps longer depending on how she is doing.

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Let me get this straight...she spiked a temp to 105 after 1 am Monday and they still sent her home on monday?!?!?! WTF!! She would not go home here until afebrile for 24 hrs off of antibiotics.She would be started on triple antibiotics also.What kind of doctor took care of her??

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Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

OB-GYN, youngish woman. Not sure what sort of ABT she is on, I know my son said "lots of horse pills".

I was WTF about the going home the same evening, but there it is. I thought she should have been kept also. She was on IV Erythromycin and IV PCN at the hospital all during her admission.

However, I was quite happy that her dr. wrote a note for her to stay off school and work for four weeks. Her parents were after her during labor to be sure and be ready for a presentation for her class on Jan. 11th, which isn't really part of this discussion, but was part of the uncaring fantasy world her family lives in. She doesn't live with my son, still lives at home with these people.

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so sorry to hear what happened to that poor child and the mom. I am an ER nurse....and in our ER we would never, never, never do what was done to her!!!! That is not our expertise...that's why we have the L&D specialty nurses. We send all of our pregnant moms to L&D if they are over 20 weeks, and they are having any kind of pain, or bleeding. If the symptoms have nothing to do with the pregnancy, then they come back to the ER for evaluation and treatment. We also call L&D nurses to come down to the ER to do fetal heart rates if necessary.

Have the lawyer check with the first ER she was in for thier policy on handling the pregnant patient. They should have one.

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How sad! Big ((HUGS)) to you and your family!

Now my two cents:

Maybe the miscarrage was caused by an infection? I say miscarrage because at my hospital at leat they will not intervene

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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.

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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 bullshit managed care option....

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