Doctors perform induction and then C/S on non-pregnant woman

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

http://fayobserver.com/Articles/2010/03/31/987295

It's hard for me to imagine the cascade of ineptitude and massive screwups that led to this, but there it is.

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Specializes in surgical.

once I heard a news somewhere. In some rural area of a developing country, a teenager was abandoned by parents thinking she got pregnant but actually it was an ovarian tumor.She had a hard time , and finally died

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Specializes in Mostly geri :).

Oh my lord!

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

maybe the ultrasound tech was absent that day?

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Specializes in ICU, M/S,Nurse Supervisor, CNS.

How embarressing for both those doctors. I can understand the one doctor's comment that a pregnancy diagnosis is not one that you would think you'd have to double check behind a resident. I know residents are still learning, but pregnancy is usually a pretty straightforward diagnosis. I do wonder about the fetal heart tone monitoring in this situation though? I have no L&D experience, but isn't that a usual thing during an induction?

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There has to be a lot to the story that wasn't printed here.

Our C&A psych unit had a teenage patient a while back who claimed to be pregnant with twins, and her family and boyfriend believed her until she reported to the ER claiming she was in labor. When they determined that she was not pregnant at all, she was sent to the floor where she really belonged.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

If she had no prenatal care, then an U/S should have been ordered for dating. No good doctor would induce without verifying dates. A simple bedside scan (no US tech needed) would have shown an empty uterus. At the VERY least, a scan should have been done to verify vertex position before beginning induction (you can't induce a breech, and clearly a vag exam would not have verified vertex since there was NO FETAL HEAD in there).

I'm sure there's a LOT more that happened than what was in the article. I'd LOVE to read the notes on that patient.

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/Education.

True...I'm sure there's a lot more to this story...

But it boils down to a woman getting an un-necessary surgery, which could have been avoided by using proper non-invasive diagnostics....and the docs get a strongly worded letter from the medical board. Bah-humbug.

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When I was a student, an 18 year old (with two kids already) delivered lady partslly. They cranked up the pit, but OOPS, it was a twin pregnancy, so she had an emergency c-section. She delivered both ways, but bounced back pretty quickly. Don't ask me how they missed that either.

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Specializes in OB.

This is very weird. I would love to get my hands on that chart. I can't believe they couldn't figure out she wasn't pregnant. How could you get heart tones?

We've had a few women come into our unit in the last year claiming to be pregnant, and each time the nurses were able to figure out that she wasn't so what the heck happened here?

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

Why were they not checking for fetal heart tones. It sounds like they didn't because if they had they would not have heard any and sent her straight for an emergency c/s thinking the baby had fetal demise...if there were not fetal heart tones and they still suspected pregnancy they certainly would not induce some one...you never give pit or any inducing agent until you have a reactive NST...this whole thing sounds fishy...and the docs got off with a warning...huu??

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
Why were they not checking for fetal heart tones. It sounds like they didn't because if they had they would not have heard any and sent her straight for an emergency c/s thinking the baby had fetal demise...if there were not fetal heart tones and they still suspected pregnancy they certainly would not induce some one...you never give pit or any inducing agent until you have a reactive NST...this whole thing sounds fishy...and the docs got off with a warning...huu??

Most fetal demises are induced. They don't do a C/S on a fetal demise unless the induction doesn't work or there is some other underlying health issue making an induction contraindicated. So if she came in with no fetal heart tones, they would call it a fetal demise and begin induction. They wouldn't rush her back for a crash C/S.

That's the only scenario I can imagine here. They took her on her word that she was pregnant (no U/S to verify). They couldnt' find FHTs via EFM (again, no U/S to verify), so they began induction for a fetal demise. The induction was ineffective because, well, THERE WAS NO BABY, and they brought her back for a C/S, whereupon, when they opened her up, they discovered a non-gravid uterus.

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