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

Published

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.

Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

I have been wondering all the same things as everyone else here. A cascade of ROYAL screwups. I'm with those who say you'd think a pregnancy diagnosis isn't one you'd think you have to check behind...

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

The article wouldn't open up for me. This reminded me of something though, not exactly the same but I was still pretty shocked by hearing about it, my mom had to prepare for Court on this because she was for sure it would end up that way, I don't know how it didn't. The Dr she was working for was getting very up there in age and wanting to retire, the wife kept pushing him not to. Was a private practice OBGYN Doc. my mom had worked for, for 10 years. Anyway, he was waiting for his practice to sell so he could get out. I don't remember all the details but in summary new patient comes in pregnant and saying she was term. Dr. was in a hurry and went into to see her, she went on and on about why she needed to be induced and said she was 39 weeks. In her chart there was an U/S report that didn't agree with this but the Dr never checked it. She was measuring off but doc said it was from her dropping. Scheduled an induction that ended up in C/S. Baby was premi and turned out was probably about 32 weeks gestation. Thankfully besides a stint in Nicu baby was OK. Since he thought he had a buyer at the time (that fell through) I guess he hadn't kept up on his Malpractice either and it had lapsed. He got out of practice the next month and ended up getting a payment from other docs in the building for referring his patients.

Turns out mother didn't want to be pregnant anymore and was sure over 30 weeks the baby would be fine because of new technology. She didn't come after the Doc. My mom was so mad, she said that she could not believe the Doc scheduled the induction without ever verifying the due dates on a new pt and just taking her word.

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Specializes in Nurse Manager, Labor and Delivery.

Yeah...not having fetal heart tones would've been a HUGE red flag to proceed to other testing...not just go by a convincing story. It scares the bejeeezus out of me that a resident would proceed to induction without FETAL HEART TONES or feeling a presenting part or confirming position.

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Specializes in L&D,Wound Care, SNC.

I worked at this L&D unit back in the U.S. I did not work there at the time of the incident I had left in 2007. I agree that there has to be WAY more to the story that is not being told. I saw a different article on this story from the local ABC affiliate (I no longer live in NC). From what I understand the diagnosis of IUFD had been determined via u/s by an intern. This semi explains why there was no EFM. But really if I were a patient and I was told there was no heartbeat you can bet I would have asked for a second and even third opinion. And I am not a doctor, but I think if I were an attending I would have confirmed the diagnosis of IUFD myself.

Count me in as someone else who would like to have seen the patient chart. I worked with that doc. She practiced OB for a long time almost 20 years. She used to be a nurse before she became an OB. I really don't know what caused her to make the decisions that she did. :( Very bizarre situation.

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Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.
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.

yes, strongly worded....and they will complain about the cost of their and lobby for tort reform to protect themselves from victims like this one.

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Specializes in L&D/Antepartum, Neuro.
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.

If this was the scenario it blows my mind that an ultrasound was never verified for a fetal demise.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
If this was the scenario it blows my mind that an ultrasound was never verified for a fetal demise.

According to someone's post above (sorry, don't remember the username), there was an U/S ordered, and it was read by an intern as a "fetal demise." Apparently the intern wasn't very skilled at reading U/S or s/he would have questioned whether there was actually a fetus in there.

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This was previously posted in the Health and Medicine Forum. One reader was curious to hear what L & D nurses had to say about this news story.

Two North Carolina doctors have been reprimanded for performing a caesarian on a woman, only to discover she wasn't pregnant at all.

The woman reportedly appeared at the hospital with her husband asking for a C-section. A resident in charge made the pregnancy diagnosis and doctors agreed to surgery after trying to induce labor for two days. When they saw an empty uterus, they "closed her back up,"

"The investigating medical board was mostly concerned about the management of patient care. "It may have fallen below the standard of care."

The doctor in charge said "I believe this has been blown way out of proportion and why it made the front page of our local paper is beyond me."

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Reprodu...ry?id=10262881

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.
This was previously posted in the Health and Medicine Forum. One reader was curious to hear what L & D nurses had to say about this news story.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Reprodu...ry?id=10262881

I love his quote:

The doctor in charge said "I believe this has been blown way out of proportion and why it made the front page of our local paper is beyond me."

Maybe he forgot that an ultrasound confirms a pregnancy dx...not a pregnancy test nor any other pregnancy symptom that the patient claims to have.

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Specializes in ICU, Home Health, Camp, Travel, L&D.

hmmm...completely pointless major surgery, anesthesia, recovery time for the patient that shouldn't have been, and major failure to follow routine standards for the staff. What the heck!~ Nope, I really don't know *why* this would've made the front page!

Dumb***es.

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

More comments can be found here:

https://allnurses.com/ob-gyn-nursing/doctors-perform-induction-466536.html

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Oops. Sorry for the double thread. I should have done a better search before posting it.

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