I am relatively new to this board but have loved all the interesting input from everyone. I could really use some input now...
Brief history: 19yo G1P0, term, no polyhydramnios, srom'd clear fluid, labor proceeded just fine got epidural at 6cm , pushed
I run into the OB a few days ago and she tells me--"guess what pathology found?" Multiple amniotic fluid emboli in the vasculature of the uterus. Holy crap! I still get goose bumps! It's what sent her into DIC but her circulating volume was so low-- the DIC also kept her alive.
She went home 96 hours after delivery and she is doing great now. WOOHOO!
I have no doubt that she was meant to live and be there for her daughter. It was not her time.
I've been a L&D nurse for 6 years and have been the nurse in several OB emergencies--MTP's and all, but after finding out about the AFE--I'm just a little wigged out. We had a maternal death a couple of years ago from one.
Have any of you had an experience like that? Any feedback is much appreciated.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I have a very good friend who had her 5th baby in April this year. Uncomplicated pregnancy--- labor and delivery lasting about 5 hours. 39 weeks gestation. 7 pound baby, normal vag delivery. Not even so much as a tear.
Well there she is, is holding the baby, breastfeeding, 2 hours after delivery, when she reaches for her husband and says, "B I don't feel too good, I really feel like ****". He pulls back the blanket to grab the baby and blood is pouring like a faucet our of her, onto the chux, then spilling like wine on the floor. He freaks, screaming for a nurse.
They come in, doing all they can to stop the bleeding. Meantime my friend, J, feels she is going down a tunnel. A long dark one. The baby is in the bedside bassinet, crying and it echoes. She wants to call out to her, but can't find her voice. She feels like she is floating, painfree, hearing her doctor scream to get her to OR now, her pressure is 60/10 at this point. She can hear them calling out her vital signs and the doctors asking the nurses to take the baby to the nursery. The voices are getting further and further away....she is being pulled away from the family she loves more than life...and the baby she has yet to come to know......it's so hard, she wants to cry, yet feels no pain.
She screams silently to B "take care of my kids, raise them well and to be good people" but her voice is silent, no one can hear her. She blacks out.......knowing she is dying and can't do a thing to stop it.....
She wakes up in ICU a few hours later, vented, on monitors and unsure what happened. Her husband is at her side, infant daughter in the hospital nursery. She can't ask what happened, she can only look at him, pleading with him to tell her what happened to her. She is in horrible pain, like burning in her abdomen......
Finally, she is off the vents, and they have told her she lost her uterus. She laughs and said "dayum, too bad we paid for B****'s vasectomy!!!" At least she has her sense of humor, her husband and her five kids. She is lucky to be alive, truly pulled from the jaws of death by a tenuous thread, having lost nearly 4 liters of blood in the OR.
The diagonsis? Placenta increta, somehow missed during pregnancy and after delivery. She is convinced her angels kept her here cause her kids need her; they are all under 12. She is convinced there is a Heaven and God...she is shaken and changed by this experience. And convinced more than ever having a baby in the right setting is what saved her life. She is lucky. But then maybe not. If she is right, God was in charge in her case.
This story is exactly what she told me as she remembers it. I was breathless, hearing how well she remembered specifics like vital signs, what was said, and the amount of blood she lost. She was told she coded for a second on the table, but came back quickly....can you imagine?
It's stories like this that scare me the most and keep me on my toes. Ob is not a place for complacency, that much I know. And Each time I step onto the elevator for work, I say a quick silent prayer that all my patients on my watch are safe. I really do.
This story is exactly what she told me as she remembers it. I was breathless, hearing how well she remembered specifics like vital signs, what was said, and the amount of blood she lost. She was told she coded for a second on the table, but came back quickly....can you imagine?
It's stories like this that scare me the most and keep me on my toes. Ob is not a place for complacency, that much I know. And Each time I step onto the elevator for work, I say a quick silent prayer that all my patients on my watch are safe. I really do.
Wow Deb...wow...
I've only been off of L&D orientation since May...I've had one PPH and she did ask me if she was going to die. The outcome was fine for her. But just to read your post sent shivers down my spine. You are so right when you say Ob is not a place for complacency!!!! And my old ICU coworkers think I'm "rocking babies" all night....
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
yea i know, OB has it way too easy according to many other units. Ah well, such is life. It's true, cases like this are rare, but spend enough time in OB and you WILL see them. I have, several times, in 7 years, and they always scare the pants off me.
I swear, it's cases like this that scare the peetootey out of me. Sometimes, I really really REALLY get so scared on the job. I was taking care of a multip the other day who was having some trouble progressing, and just started thinking to myself, "God, I hope this doesn't start some domino effect of horrid events." Some days, it's just scary for me to go to work.
I was just telling my husband the other day what a miracle it is, physiologically, that women and their babies make it through pregnancy, labor, and delivery alive. It really is.
And it's stuff like this that made me a total nutcase while I was preggo. :rotfl: Knowledge is a curse.
Good god...I don't know why I started reading this post...My nursing curiousity got the best of me!I am due on 10/12/04...Now, I just upped my nervousness to frantic levels!!
Good god...I don't know why I started reading this post...My nursing curiousity got the best of me!I am due on 10/12/04...Now, I just upped my nervousness to frantic levels!!
We had two stillbirths the week before I delivered. I totally understand your neurosis. I started having panic attacks. One word for you: vistaril. Go see your doc and get some drugs if you feel yourself hitting panic levels. Seriously. Being a nurse and knowing what you know and being pregnant is a wicked combo.
Good god...I don't know why I started reading this post...My nursing curiousity got the best of me!I am due on 10/12/04...Now, I just upped my nervousness to frantic levels!!
the rate of occurrence for amniotic fluid embolism is 1 in 80,000. The odds are SO in your favor. Last year we delivered 76% of our babies lady partslly (unassisted). You will have a great birth experience! Positive thinking brings positive results. Women are meant to have babies. Best wishes to you and your family!
i'm with you burger!! i am due 12/14, just graduated school 8/20 and passed boards (yea!) but am sure i will be paranoid at L&D time! precipitous birth has been on my mind lately, though!!!
i'm with you burger!! i am due 12/14, just graduated school 8/20 and passed boards (yea!) but am sure i will be paranoid at L&D time! precipitous birth has been on my mind lately, though!!!
congrats on passing the boards and on the baby!! I do agree with the other posters..ignorance is bliss. I am not an Ob-Nurse, but I do remember my rotation quite well. The female body is made to give birth. I remember being so amazed and blown away by the whole process!
congrats on passing the boards and on the baby!! I do agree with the other posters..ignorance is bliss. I am not an Ob-Nurse, but I do remember my rotation quite well. The female body is made to give birth. I remember being so amazed and blown away by the whole process!
I got pregnant in my ob rotation, ain't that funny. this is definitely our oops baby! my instructor said "was this a planned event?" i said "noooo" she asked "were we careless with contraception?" i replied "absolutely" after the shock wore off, we are really happy about this pregnancy (our 3rd) i have a girl 8 and a boy 4. i do remember though during the first part of my rotation before i found out i was pregnant my teacher saying "pregnancy is the most dangerous thing that you can put your body through" my first two deliveries were just fine, i gotta think positive!
congrats on passing the boards and on the baby!! I do agree with the other posters..ignorance is bliss. I am not an Ob-Nurse, but I do remember my rotation quite well. The female body is made to give birth. I remember being so amazed and blown away by the whole process!
I got pregnant in my ob rotation, ain't that funny. this is definitely our oops baby! my instructor said "was this a planned event?" i said "noooo" she asked "were we careless with contraception?" i replied "absolutely" after the shock wore off, we are really happy about this pregnancy (our 3rd) i have a girl 8 and a boy 4. i do remember though during the first part of my rotation before i found out i was pregnant my teacher saying "pregnancy is the most dangerous thing that you can put your body through" my first two deliveries were just fine, i gotta think positive!
My sister nearly died from an afe. She is three years out . Although she had suffered a hypoxic brain injury she is doing well. I am in nursing school in her honor. She was one week from completing her undergrad and now she can barely complete 2nd grade math problems.
Holy crap! I still get goose bumps! It's what sent her into DIC but her circulating volume was so low-- the DIC also kept her alive.
SmilingBluEyes
20,964 Posts
I have a very good friend who had her 5th baby in April this year. Uncomplicated pregnancy--- labor and delivery lasting about 5 hours. 39 weeks gestation. 7 pound baby, normal vag delivery. Not even so much as a tear.
Well there she is, is holding the baby, breastfeeding, 2 hours after delivery, when she reaches for her husband and says, "B I don't feel too good, I really feel like ****". He pulls back the blanket to grab the baby and blood is pouring like a faucet our of her, onto the chux, then spilling like wine on the floor. He freaks, screaming for a nurse.
They come in, doing all they can to stop the bleeding. Meantime my friend, J, feels she is going down a tunnel. A long dark one. The baby is in the bedside bassinet, crying and it echoes. She wants to call out to her, but can't find her voice. She feels like she is floating, painfree, hearing her doctor scream to get her to OR now, her pressure is 60/10 at this point. She can hear them calling out her vital signs and the doctors asking the nurses to take the baby to the nursery. The voices are getting further and further away....she is being pulled away from the family she loves more than life...and the baby she has yet to come to know......it's so hard, she wants to cry, yet feels no pain.
She screams silently to B "take care of my kids, raise them well and to be good people" but her voice is silent, no one can hear her. She blacks out.......knowing she is dying and can't do a thing to stop it.....
She wakes up in ICU a few hours later, vented, on monitors and unsure what happened. Her husband is at her side, infant daughter in the hospital nursery. She can't ask what happened, she can only look at him, pleading with him to tell her what happened to her. She is in horrible pain, like burning in her abdomen......
Finally, she is off the vents, and they have told her she lost her uterus. She laughs and said "dayum, too bad we paid for B****'s vasectomy!!!" At least she has her sense of humor, her husband and her five kids. She is lucky to be alive, truly pulled from the jaws of death by a tenuous thread, having lost nearly 4 liters of blood in the OR.
The diagonsis? Placenta increta, somehow missed during pregnancy and after delivery. She is convinced her angels kept her here cause her kids need her; they are all under 12. She is convinced there is a Heaven and God...she is shaken and changed by this experience. And convinced more than ever having a baby in the right setting is what saved her life. She is lucky. But then maybe not. If she is right, God was in charge in her case.
This story is exactly what she told me as she remembers it. I was breathless, hearing how well she remembered specifics like vital signs, what was said, and the amount of blood she lost. She was told she coded for a second on the table, but came back quickly....can you imagine?
It's stories like this that scare me the most and keep me on my toes. Ob is not a place for complacency, that much I know. And Each time I step onto the elevator for work, I say a quick silent prayer that all my patients on my watch are safe. I really do.