Hospital Denies Patient left to watch baby die

[gwenith, BSN, RN]

there has to be more to this story - i will post more as it comes up on our news

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1013917.htm

last update: saturday, december 20, 2003. 8:21am (aedt)

hospital denies patient left to watch baby die

a sydney hospital is refuting claims by a patient that she was left alone in a corridor to give birth and then watch her premature baby die.

karen middleton has told a sydney newspaper that she was originally turned away from westmead hospital in the city's south-west after being diagnosed with constipation.

ms middleton claims when she returned to the hospital some weeks later she went into labour 10 minutes after an ultrasound had been completed and staff had assured her no birth was imminent.

she says despite asking for help, she was left to hold her dead child for over an hour.

head of women's and children's health at westmead hospital, associate professor peter illingworth, says the hospital followed the correct procedures.

"this is a tragic case of a woman who gave birth to a baby at stage of her pregnancy before the baby had any chance of survival," he said.

"westmead hospital did nothing wrong in providing her care - she was examined thoroughly by a doctor and a midwife was with her during the birth.

"the midwife decided quite correctly and in consultation with the mother the right thing to do was to leave the baby in the mother's arms."

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[dawngloves, BSN, RN]

How many weeks was she? I see nothing out of ordinary here.

[CCU NRS]

That Is Horrendous

[KaroSnowQueen, RN]

.... was left alone in a corridor to give birth and then watch her premature baby die.

.... staff had assured her no birth was imminent.

She says despite asking for help, she was left to hold her dead child for over an hour.

Hello, there sounds like something wrong to me. Told no birth was imminent, left alone to give birth and hold a dead baby? Somebody somewhere is not telling the whole story. Sounds negligent at the very least.

[fergus51]

Having been in OB for a while, I am quite sceptical that staff made her give birth in a hallway and forced her to hold her dead baby. I just don't think so.

[roxannekkb]

Originally posted by fergus51

Having been in OB for a while, I am quite sceptical that staff made her give birth in a hallway and forced her to hold her dead baby. I just don't think so.

I tend to agree. Having worked in the NICU for a long time, I've never seen anything like this occur--even in horrendously overcrowded county facilities. One needs to read stories like this with a healthy sense of skepticism, and not take them at face value.

[imenid37]

Are there malpractice attorneys in Australia? Sounds like a lawyers dream come true. I am sure baby died and was born before age of vialbility. Beyond that, it sounds like the hospital staff and mom have 2 quite differing versions of what happened.

[NurseMegA]

I don't see how any OB Staff would allow that to happen. There are obviously two separate stories being told here. I don't think that that would actually happen in any well developed country. We have a midwife that has been traveling to Afganistan on Missions and some of the stories she tells sound like that but I doubt it would happen in Australia.

[kids]

I think this article is probably a prime example of how grief can affect (effect?) a persons recall of events.

[dawngloves, BSN, RN]

Originally posted by gwenith

"Westmead Hospital did nothing wrong in providing her care - she was examined thoroughly by a doctor and a midwife was with her during the birth.

"The midwife decided quite correctly and in consultation with the mother the right thing to do was to leave the baby in the mother's arms."

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Again, I see nothing wrong here. Read the whole story folks. I don't think this woman delivered a 32 weeker herself in the hallwall and held the baby, begging for help for an hour while it died.

[gwenith, BSN, RN]

An update from other sources

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/19/1071337138527.html?from=storyrhs

Darn - can't post teh article my intermittant glitch cought up with me!!

[fergus51]

She obviously doesn't understand what happened from a medical pov. The article says she was 5 months pregnant. I don't care how long the baby survived (90 minutes or 3 hours), there is NO WAY that child could have been saved with medical treatment. It sounds like this woman is just having a hard time accepting that fact.